Navy's inability to protect a three-goal lead in the fourth quarter and suffer an eventual 9-8 loss to No. 4 North Carolina overshadowed what had been a solid performance by R.J. Wickham.
The senior goalkeeper made 12 saves, including six in the first quarter and many of the point-blank variety. His display was a withering response to critics who pointed to his four saves and eight goals allowed in the first half of an eventual 13-7 loss to Jacksonville last Sunday as evidence that perhaps sophomore Nolan Hickey should be manning the net.
But the three-year starter showed that he is still the Midshipmen's best chance at winning – a topic that never worried him.
"It's not like I wasn't trying last week," Wickham said. "It wasn't my week for whatever reason. But yeah, I came out today fired up. I wanted to prove myself to my team, especially my team and my coach. There's times I got to bail the guys out. There's other times the defense made it real easy for me."
Wickham's play anchored a defense that played without suspended starter Nik Mullen (more on that later). But it also proved the wisdom of coach Rick Sowell's decision to express his confidence in the goalie on Wednesday.
Sowell said he thought Wickham's outing inspired his teammates against the Tar Heels.
"Anytime you get a hot goalie, you're going to feed off of that," Sowell said. "But I think there's a number of things that played into our energy. I think our boys were disappointed in our performance last week, and I think it was a pride thing that was working for us. No one outside of the locker room gave us much of a chance to even be in this game after what they saw last week. So I think our pride was working more. And R.J. maybe exemplified that more than the other guys. And once he made a couple saves, I think our fellows fed off of that and allowed us to get some good momentum in the first half."
Other notes:
*The Navy offense that looked so opportunistic in the first half disappeared in the second half. After scoring six goals on 17 shots in the first half, the unit scored just two goals on eight shots, including just one attempt in the fourth quarter. While conceding that the offense may have gotten a little too conservative, Sowell disputed any notion that the coaches ordered the players to play a stall and run time off the clock in an attempt to win the game. "We weren't necessarily trying to shorten the game. Again, it was more [about] quality possessions," he said. "Got to give Carolina credit. They played some pretty good defense and certainly weren't making it easier for us. So maybe it looked more like we were trying to stall the ball, but we really weren't. We were trying to score. We were just trying not to be reckless in our pursuit."
*The Midshipmen played Saturday despite the absence of eight players, who were serving a one-game suspension for an unspecified violation. Mullen, who started against VMI and moved to long-stick midfielder for the injured Pat Kiernan (broken hand) against Jacksonville and sophomore attackman Harrison Chaires were among the benched players, and Sowell said their status for Saturday's Patriot League opener against reigning champion Bucknell is yet to be determined. "They let their teammates down. As a result of it, I suspended them for this game," Sowell said. "They'll be back at practice on Monday, but this is about the team, this is about our program. Unfortunately, they did something that let the team down, let the program down. As a result, I'm holding them accountable for their actions, and I felt like a one-game suspension was appropriate."
*North Carolina's impressive rally would not have been possible without sophomore R.G. Keenan. The Perry Hall native and Boys' Latin graduate collected a game-high 11 groundballs and won 18-of-20 faceoffs, including all five in that critical fourth quarter in which the Tar Heels scored four unanswered goals. The 90 percent success rate was a career best for Keenan, who was one overall faceoff win and one groundball short of tying career highs. "You don't come back from a three-goal deficit without going 18-for-20 at the X," coach Joe Breschi said. "And really, our best defense in that run was having the ball on offense. We knew our backs were against the wall, and we fought like heck to win the game."