No. 20 Navy's two-game winning streak has coincided with junior Kevin Doyle's promotion to the first midfield line with senior Patrick Moran and sophomore Nikk Davis.
That may be coincidental, but Doyle, a Towson native and Gilman graduate who stands in at 6 foot, 3 inches and 191 pounds, has contributed one goal and one assist since starting with the unit. Senior Joe Lennon, the 6-3, 202-pound Westminster native and Loyola graduate, has moved to the second line with senior Basil Daratsos and junior Brian Striffler and posted one goal and two assists.
"We felt like getting Joe with [Brian] Striffler and in other different combinations might help us a little bit," Midshipmen coach Richie Meade said. "We actually started running Joe back with the first group in the fourth quarter against Colgate. Kevin's a big physical kid, and he's got the ability to dodge pretty hard. We just felt like moving Joe with some other guys might get him free a little bit more."
Senior short-stick defensive midfielder Joe McAuliffe is still sidelined suffering a Lisfranc sprain in his foot. Meade said there is no timetable for his return.
"His injury has been evaluated several times, and it's definitely getting better," Meade said. "He's going to be back at some point, but I don't know when that's going to be. The good news there is that we've got Jordan Seivold and Bucky Smith who are both freshmen and have played an awful lot. Jordy scored a goal the other day against Colgate, and Bucky is getting better. They're big, strong, physical kids with great speed. So hopefully, they're getting better and coming down the stretch, if we get Joe back at full strength, we'll have some depth that was created out of necessity that may help us."
The Midshipmen have been cutting down on turnovers, which plagued the team earlier in the season. In the team's five wins, Navy has committed 78 turnovers, which averages out to 15.6 per contest. In four losses, the team has committed 75 turnovers, which is 18.8 per game.
Meade, however, cautioned against reading too much into the numbers. He cited Duke's 22 turnovers in the Blue Devils' 14-5 rout of the Midshipmen in last year's NCAA Tournament first-round showdown and Navy's 26 turnovers in a 9-6 upset of then-No. 1 Maryland in 2004.
"Obviously, you don't go out and say, 'Hey, let's have 26 turnovers.' But sometimes, it's the nature of the game," Meade said. "The thing that really bothers you is the unforced turnovers, and we've been trying to address that. But you really can't harp on every little thing. You've got to let the kids play a little bit."