One of the bright spots in Navy’s season-opening 14-7 victory over VMI on Saturday was the play of the starting attack.

Sophomores Sam Jones and Tucker Hull and senior Taylor Reynolds combined for 12 goals and six assists. Jones, an Annapolis native and Severna Park graduate who was named Monday the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week, paced the offense with five goals and four assists, while Hull chipped in four goals and two assists.

But while the attack took center stage, the starting midfield of senior Nikk Davis, junior Bryce Dabbs and sophomore Pat Durkin struggled. The trio totaled one goal on 11 shots and three turnovers.

Coach Rick Sowell praised the attack while noting the midfield’s ineffectiveness.

“We’ve kind of geared our offense around our attack unit,” he said. “We feel like we have a versatile attack. You throw in Taylor Reynolds with that crew and they all can play out on the perimeter, but they’re very good inside as well. They have good vision, they’re capable of finishing shots. So our offense is geared around our attack. Now, that said, our midfield certainly needs to be more productive going forward. In some cases, it was some hockey assists, and the midfield initiated the offensive set and drew the slide and then Tucker or Sam got credit for the assist because they made the next pass. But, yeah, we still need our midfield to be more productive, and I think they will be.”

The first midfield played without junior Jay Mann, who finished last season ranked fifth in points (13) after making eight starts. Mann is transitioning to a new role as a short-stick defensive midfielder, and Sowell said Mann has accepted the change without argument.

“He’s the ultimate team player,” Sowell said. “We just feel like he can help us on the defensive end. And he’s going to play a lot of offense. … Jay brings a lot of intensity to the defensive end of the field. He can help us in transition. He had an assist in transition and almost had another one. So we feel like he helps our team on the defensive end and helping us in transition, but also we expect him to contribute on the offensive end throughout the season.”