No. 4 Men’s Lacrosse Clinches Patriot League Regular Season Title With 18-6 Win Over Loyola Maryland

Friday, April 25

West Point, NY

4:30 PM

Army West Point

12-1, 7-1

Loyola Maryland

3-11, 3-5

LOYOLA

ARMY

No. 4 Men’s Lacrosse Clinches Patriot League Regular Season Title With 18-6 Win Over Loyola Maryland

April 25, 2025 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The No. 4-ranked Army West Point men's lacrosse team (12-1, 7-1 Patriot League) secured its 16^th Patriot League Regular Season Champions title with an 18-6 win over Loyola Maryland (3-11, 3-5 Patriot League) at Michie Stadium on Saturday.

Jackson Eicher led the Black Knights in goals for the second consecutive game as he buried six goals to tie the program record for goals in a single season with 51 goals in his senior campaign.

Hill Plunkett tied Eicher for points as he logged a career-high five assists and scored a goal himself in the third quarter to mark a career-high six points.

Gunnar Fellows and Brayden Fountain paced the Black Knights' offense as Fellows scored four goals while Fountain earned three points from a goal and two assists.

Will Coletti headlined a dominant midfield with a game-high 10 ground balls along with 12 faceoff wins. Christian Fournier and Ryan Nixon backed Coletti with two ground balls and a caused turnover to Fournier and five ground balls and a caused turnover for Nixon.

AJ Pilate and Sean Byrne helped the Black Knights demonstrate why they are the nation's leading defense as Pilate helped Army hold the Greyhounds to just 18 shots on goal, holding Loyola's leading scorer Matthew Minicus to just one goal in the contest.

The nation's leading goalkeeper in save percentage and goals against average, Byrne delivered 10 saves with just four goals allowed in his 45 minutes in goal for the Black Knights.

HOW IT HAPPENED
A picturesque spring day on the banks of the Hudson River turned out to be the perfect backdrop to Army's final game of the 2025 regular season against Loyola Maryland.

The Black Knights got off to a smooth start as Jackson Eicher opened the scoring in Army's favor just over four minutes into the squad's regular season finale on a feed from Evan Plunkett. The Greyhounds tied things up 50 seconds later as Brady West found the back of the net to bring things tied five minutes into the action.

The two teams took the measure of each other as the first quarter wore on, but Gunnar Fellows would make good on a pair of passes from Hill Plunkett for back-to-back goals to take Army ahead 3-1 in the final five minutes of the first quarter.

The Black Knights carried their advantage through to the second quarter where Hill Plunkett found Fellows once more to complete Fellows' fifth hat trick of the season just two and a half minutes into the quarter.

Brayden Fountain spotted a hole in the Loyola Maryland defense through which to set up Eicher for his second goal of the game as he sent a pass into open space for the senior attackman to step down and rip a shot to the bottom left corner of the Greyhounds' net.

The visitors found their second goals of the game just over a minute later, but freshman attackman Tyler Clark stole the momentum back for Army as he buried a pass from Hill Plunkett on the Greyhounds' doorstep for his first goal of the season.

Defensive midfielder Christian Mazur kept the Black Knights rolling as he charged into Loyola Maryland's defensive end from the 40-yard line off a clearing pass from defenseman AJ Pilate and scored his second goal of the season with off the bounce from 10 yards out directly in front of Loyola's net.

Luke Murphy scored just over a minute later to give the Greyhounds a respite, but Jackson Eicher brought the hammer down for the Black Knights with back-to-back goals on assists from Evan Plunkett and Kyle Atherton to give Army a 9-3 lead heading into the final five minutes of the first half.

Freshman attackman Brayden Fountain capped off Army's spectacular first half performance as AJ Pilate charged down the field through Loyola Maryland's defenders and found Fountain in an open pocket of space where he could rip a give-and-go goal to put the Black Knights ahead 10-3 at halftime.

Army did not let up in the second half as Fellows found the back of the net for the fourth time in the game just a minute and a half back into the action, dancing around the outside of the crease and slipping a pass from Hill Plunkett around the Greyhounds' Max Watkinson for his 31^st goal of the season.

Loyola Maryland's leading scorer finally found traction against the Black Knights a minute after Fellows' goal, but Matthew Minicus' goal would not go uncontested as Fountain fed senior attackman Finn McCullough a behind-the-back pass right in front of Loyola's net that McCullough finished with a shot that snuck past the legs of the Greyhounds' goalkeeper.

McCullough then found Eicher midway through the third quarter to bring Army to a nine-goal lead with his fifth goal of the game before Aiden Weisenborn collected a rebound off Watkinson from Hill Plunkett's shot to give Army a 10-goal lead in the contest.

Hill Plunkett then found the back of the net himself with a laser to the top right corner of the cage as the clock ticked down on the third frame.

The Black Knights continued to press their advantage as Eicher notched his sixth goal of the game with a minute and a half left on the clock, marking his fourth game this season with at least six goals and tying him for the program record for goals in a single season with his 51^st of the season on a feed from Ryan Sellew.

Sophomore midfielder Grant Masterson notched his fourth goal of the season in the final minute of the third quarter to bring Army to a 17-4 lead heading into the final 15 minutes of action.

The Black Knights maintained their aggressive defense, holding the score still at 17-4 until the Greyhounds found the back of the net twice midway through the final quarter.

Army would have the final word, however, as freshman midfielder Thor Swanson ripped a shot down low to mark his first career goal on a feed from Alex Petrignani in front of his hometown crowd to secure Army's 18-6 victory.

BLACK KNIGHT BULLET POINTS

Friday's win secured Army's 16^th Patriot League Regular Season Champions title, captured Army's third consecutive Patriot League Regular Season Champions title, earned Army's first outright Patriot League Regular Season Champions title since 2010, clinched the no. 1 seed in the 2025 Patriot League Championship for the Black Knights, and marked Army's fifth season in the last ten years in which the Black Knights have earned 12 or more wins.
Senior attackman Jackson Eicher paced the Black Knights with six goals. The game marks his fourth performance this season with five or more goals.
Eicher's six goals pushed him to a 51-goal total for the 2025 season – tying him for the most goals in a single season in program history alongside Tom Cafaro who set the record in 1971. His 92 career goals rank him 17^th in program history for career goals while his 141 career points rank 19^th in program history.
Junior attackman Gunnar Fellows earned his fifth hat trick of the season with his four-goal performance against the Greyhounds.
Freshman midfielder Hill Plunkett notched career highs in assists (5) and points (6).
Army saw ten different players score goals on Friday – Jackson Eicher, Tyler Clark, Grant Masterson, Hill Plunkett, Aiden Weisenborn, Thor Swanson, Finn McCullough, Brayden Fountain, Gunnar Fellows, and Christian Mazur.
Army's defense kept a tight leash on the Greyhounds – allowing just 32 overall shots from the visitors with only 18 of them landing on target compared to Army's 58 total shots and 34 shots on goal.
The Black Knights were aggressive playmakers in their final home game of the regular season, recording seven caused turnovers to Loyola Maryland's three. All seven caused turnovers came from different members of the squad.
Sean Byrne showed out in goal for the Black Knights, logging 10 saves and allowing only four goals over his 45 minutes of action to improve to a 6.77 goals against average and a .633 save percentage for the season.

UP NEXT
Army will host the semifinal and championship rounds of the 2025 Patriot League Men's Lacrosse Championships next week. The Black Knights will face the lowest remaining seed after the quarterfinals on Friday, May 2^nd. Fans can catch the action on CBS Sports Network and follow along with the live stats here.