There is no goalie controversy for Loyola Maryland.
Although freshman starter Grant Limone was temporarily benched in the third quarter of Saturday's 11-4 loss to Patriot League rival Colgate at Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore, coach Charley Toomey announced that he intended to start Limone in Saturday's home game against Navy.
"Yes, Grant's our goalie," Toomey said after joking that he did not want to tip his hand to the Midshipmen.
By the numbers, Limone, who has started the past six games for the No. 16 Greyhounds (5-5, 3-2 Patriot League), did not have a good day against the Raiders. He made just three saves in the first half and did not have a stop before getting pulled for senior Pat McEnerney with 9:07 remaining in the third quarter.
McEnerney, who started the first four games, made one save before Limone returned at the start of the fourth quarter.
Despite the moves, Toomey is sticking with Limone.
"We've settled in with Grant as our goalie," he said. "I felt like in the third quarter, I just wanted to get him out and let him see what I was seeing from the sideline, let him see the types of shots he was facing, let him catch his breath. When he came out, I said, 'You need to be prepared. We're probably going to put you back in for the fourth.' Said that right then and there. He went back in, and I was proud of him, the way that he bulled his neck.
"I wish we could have put ourselves in a position to claw back a little bit, but it wasn't because of what Grant did in the fourth quarter that we weren't able to pull this thing out. We need to get off to a little bit of a better start, and that's kind of been something that has plagued us the past couple weeks. We've got to come out of the locker room and play with the type of energy that we need to play with for 60 minutes, and it's tough when you're playing from behind. We did it last week at Lafayette, but we were good enough at the faceoff X that we could shoot our way out of trouble. We've got to come out of that locker room and have a little vinegar behind us and be nasty and play."
Circling back to "Three Things to Watch" …
1) Watch Ryan Walsh. The Raiders got one goal and two assists from senior attackman Ryan Walsh, the 11th overall pick in the Major League Lacrosse draft, who ranks fifth in program history in goals (119) and sixth in points (176). Walsh, who has posted 13 goals and 10 assists thus far, had a hand in his team's first two goals and compiled his second assist in the third quarter. But he did not have an explosive performance against Loyola senior defenseman Pat Frazier.
"I thought he did fine," Toomey said of Frazier's defensive effort. "Ryan Walsh is a terrific player. Ryan Walsh isn't the guy that we're going to look at in the film room and say that we lost our matchup. Really, where we lost our matchups was up top in slide and recovery and the pick games up top and the throwbacks."
2) Watch the rest of the Colgate offense. Although Walsh did not enjoy a breakthrough performance, he did not need one as he got plenty of help from his teammates. Junior midfielder Cameron Williams scored a career-high four goals and added an assist. Senior midfielder Matt Clarkson and sophomore midfielder Peter Donato each posted one goal and two assists. Freshman attackman Chase Wittich (Gilman) scored twice. Raiders coach Mike Murphy said the offense is more than just a one-man show.
"Ryan's going to command a lot of attention," Murphy said. "He's our reigning offensive MVP. But to have guys step up in the situations that they did — Cam Williams, Chase Wittich, all of our guys — at least today, they answered the bell, and that was all that I asked of my guys. When it was your turn, you've got to make a play."
3) Watch Graham Savio. Sophomore Graham Savio won 13 of 19 faceoffs for the Greyhounds, which would suggest that the offense also dominated the time-of-possession battle. But unofficially, there were at least three occasions when Savio and his teammates on the wings corralled loose balls off the draws, then gave it right back by committing turnovers. Those mistakes did not go unnoticed.
"I think it was a lot of faceoff-won, faceoff-lost today, too," Toomey said. "We would win a faceoff, but then that pressure would come from the wings, and we just didn't handle that well."