HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University Panthers opened the 2025 men's lacrosse season welcoming Navy to Vert Stadium. Matching up for the third time in program history in the last four seasons, the Panthers fell 14-10.
In Head Coach
John Crawley's first game in the driver's seat he praised the amount of hard work, effort and energy the Panther squad brought to the field, despite the tough loss.
"We played a typical Navy team that played really hard," Coach Crawley stated. "In the middle of the field, I thought their faceoff guy brought a ton of energy for them and their goalie had a really nice day. They out executed us. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff and I thought they did a nice job. We've got a young team, maybe not age wise but they're young in terms of game time situation experience. It's another step in the learning process and I think there's a lot that we can learn from. I'm really proud of our guys for fighting, I thought they played really hard and I thought our faceoff guys did an excellent job of competing in the middle of the field. We had some solid execution... it just wasn't enough in the end."
Site: Vert Stadium
Score: High Point 10, Navy 14
Records: High Point (0-1), Navy (1-0)
Kicking off the game in the first quarter, the Panthers put the first goal in the back of the net.
Collin Rovere took his defend across the middle of the field, pulled a back spin move to find an open view of the goal to get his shot off at the 11:42 mark. Navy quickly answered and tied the game in the next possession.
High Point and Navy exchanged goals as
Ryan Hynes and
Jeb Brenfleck scored HPU's next two goals before the end of the first quarter, both unassisted. The game was tied 3-3 at the end of the first quarter.
The Panthers opened the second quarter with back-to-back goals.
Justin Wixted juked his defender behind the goal and curled around to get an easy right handed shot at the 14:18 minute mark to put HPU up 4-3.
Matt Lutzel joined in on the action as
Ian Cann found him camped out right in front of the crease for a dump off to turn and score, putting the Panthers up by two, 5-3 with 12 minutes to go in the first half.
Navy went on a four-goal run to close out the second quarter after forcing multiple turnovers by the Panthers. High Point trailed 7-5 at the break.
A High Point goal opened the second half as
Owen Bunten tagged his first goal in an HPU jersey, closing the gap back to one at the 12-minute mark. Two minutes later, High Point dropped in another goal to trail 8-7 after Wixted and Cann connected on the play for an HPU goal.
Through the end of the third quarter, Navy strung together four straight goals to lead 12-7 at the end of the 15 minutes.
Not fazed by the five goal differential, High Point went to work early in the fourth quarter. After a minute and a half of action, Bunten forced a turnover on Navy that was picked up by
James Westbrooks to spark the offensive momentum for the Panthers.
High Point scored its first goal as Hynes found Lutzel at the doorstep. Winning the faceoff from a Navy violation, HPU scored its second straight goal in a man-up situation from Bunten on a pass from Rovere.
Luca Accardo created the third opportunity for the Panthers with a faceoff win as Hynes came down and scored his second goal of the game, helping High Point close the gap to two, 12-10 at the 11-minute mark.
Following a timeout by Navy, the Midshipmen answered and scored in the next possession. Navy scored a second goal to go up by four with six and a half minutes to go in the game. The Panthers released multiple shots in an attempt to close the gap but were not able to find the back of the net, resulting in the 14-10 loss.
High Point was led on the attack by Hynes, Lutzel and Bunten with two goals apiece while Accardo led on the faceoff going 14-for-24 with a team-high 13 ground balls. In goal,
Jude Smith collected five saves in the first half.
UP Next:
High Point will travel to VMI for its first road test of the season on Saturday, February 8 at 12:00 p.m.
#GoHPU x #A10MLAX
