No. 5 Loyola Marymount Sinks No. 11 Navy 11-4 in NCAA Third Place Game

Brett Rajchel

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Tibor Forai (So., Novi Sad, Serbia/Medicinsk Skola) scored four goals to lead No. 5 nationally ranked Loyola Marymount University to an 11-4 win over the No. 11 ranked Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy in the third place game of the 2008 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship at Stanford University's Avery Aquatic Center.

The win avenges a 7-6 victory by Navy over the Lions in the 2007 NCAA Championship third place game at Stanford and marks LMU's second victory over the Midshipmen in an NCAA third place game in the last six years as the Lions downed the Mids 10-7 at Stanford in 2003.

In a game marked by 30 penalties and a protest, the key to the game was Navy's inability to convert on its' man-advantage opportunities as the Midshipmen finished 0-for-11.  However, Loyola Marymount did not fail to convert on its chances cashing in on 27% of its' chances plus three penalty shots.

Navy struck first in the game as Johnny Meiners (Jr., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) buried his shot from the low post just over a minute into the game.  LMU answered 17 seconds later when Brian Benedetti (Jr., Mountain View, Calif./St. Francis) scored on a sweep out of two-meters.

The game turned at the 4:44 mark as Mike Mulvey (Sr., Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad) was excluded leading to a man-advantage situation for the Lions.  Forai wasted no time in cashing in on the man-up chance as he placed a cross cage skip shot into the cage from the four spot to give LMU a 2-1 lead.

LMU added to the margin as Tim Heafner (Sr., Belleville, Ill./St. Louis University) drew a penalty on the low post which Forai converted at 3:44 to give the Lions a 3-1 lead.  The lead grew to 4-1 minutes later as Mulvey committed his third foul at two-meters and was whistled for a misconduct while leaving the pool to award the Lions a penalty shot.  Tim Hummel (Sr., Bellevue, Wash./O'Dea) converted the shots before the end of the period to put LMU in front 4-1 after eight minutes of play.

However, the two teams were forced to replay the final 15 seconds of the period as the Midshipmen earned an ejection and called a timeout in the final seconds of the period. However, the referees failed to signal the appropriate whistles preventing Navy from establishing its' offense properly.  The protest was upheld and the clock reset to 15 seconds, with Navy given another man-advantage opportunity.  However, the Midshipmen came up blank once again to leaving the score at 4-1 after 8:15 of play.

The ejection of Mulvey seemed to take the wind out of the Midshipmen as LMU went on a 5-0 run in the second quarter to carry a 9-1 lead into halftime.

The onslaught began as Navy was excluded at 7:32, leading to a man-advantage goal by Hummel to bring the score to 5-1.  Navy's Chuck Baker (Sr., Greenwich, Conn./Greenwich) was then ejected during the transition and upon leaving the field of play received a Red Card. LMU called time and scored the advantage goal to go in front 6-1

The Lions continued to pour it on in the period as Julien Lormant (Sr., Laguna Niguel, Calif./Santa Margarita) scored off an outlet pass to two-meters at 4:02 before Ryan Fair (Jr., Laguna Beach, Calif./Laguna Beach) buried a cross-pool pass following a steal for an 8-1 lead.  LMU closed out the period and the half with another score as Loyola drew another penalty shot which Forai rifled into the cage for a 9-1 lead.

LMU continued the barrage to open the third period as Edgaras Asajavicious (Fr., Vilnius, Lithuania/Zemyos Gym) scored on an advantage opportunity to build the lead to 10-1.  Navy attempted to climb back into the game as Kyle Wertz (Fr., San Diego, Calif./Westview) blasted a shot that glanced off the right post at 6:56 to set the score at 10-2.

Neither team could crack the opposing defense for the remainder of the third period and the first minute of the fourth before Wertz broke the drought courtesy a skip shot to bring the Midshipmen within seven at 10-3.

The Lions iced the win three minutes later as Fair scored from the outside to increase the LMU lead to 11-3.

Wertz closed out the scoring in the game as he backhanded in a shot at the 1:14 mark for his second hat-trick in as many games and the 11-4 final.

In cage, Brett Rajchel (Jr., Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park) and Chase Hansen (Fr., Newberg, Ore./Newberg) combined for 11 saves, while Andy Stevens (So., Orange, Calif./Villa Park) stopped 12 shots for LMU.

"We started out great and went downhill," noted Navy head coach Mike Schofield. "I thought we were playing one of our better games of the year last night. Today, whatever needed to go wrong went wrong." 

Navy concludes the season 20-11 as the Midshipmen clinched the program's fourth straight 20-win season and the 23rd since 1983.

LMU Goals: Tibor Forai (4); Tim Hummel (2); Edgaras Asajavicius; Derek Milligan; Ryan Fair; Julien Lormant; Brian Benedetti

Navy Goals: Kyle Wertz (3); Johnny Meiners

Saves: LMU - Andy Stevens (12) ; Navy - Brett Rajchel (11), Chasen Hansen (0)