Perhaps the most eye-opening Division I men’s result last weekend was Mount St. Mary’s 11-9 victory at Navy, the program’s first victory ever over the Midshipmen.

Griffin McGinley made 21 saves for the Mountaineers, who picked off a short-handed Delaware bunch to open last season. This time, it was a combination of a hot goalie, experience and some welcome breaks that helped the Mount collect a victory.

“I thought along with my staff that we had a chance to be in this game,” longtime Mount coach Tom Gravante said. “When you look at it on paper, we were a little bit more mature on offense than Navy, and that would allow us to make plays.”

In many ways, Gravante could see it coming far earlier than last week. He was struck when fall practice started just how different things were from the 4-9 season the Mount navigated in 2021.

That team had 26 seniors — perhaps too many. As Gravante described it, sometimes a team can have too many kings and not enough pawns.

“They were great young men. I didn’t have any issues with them. But it wasn’t a great, great culture,” Gravante said. “It was different. They weren’t social misfits. They weren’t academically ineligible. We had a different culture. This year we have eight seniors, and four of them are captains, and we have a better culture. It’s just what it is. I recognized that this fall, and I told my staff, ‘This team has the ability to catch somebody.’”

Given the way Gravante usually schedules, there were a lot of candidates to be that “somebody.” The Mount visits Delaware on Saturday and Towson on Tuesday. UMBC visits Emmitsburg on Feb. 25, and the Mountaineers travel to Georgetown on March 1.

But this team didn’t wait to surprise a high-profile opponent, and McGinley was a big part of why. The sophomore made two starts last season, including one against Navy, before winning the full-time job in the preseason.

He made seven stops in the fourth quarter as the Mount held on to what was once as large as a four-game advantage. McGinley was named the USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Player of the Week for his efforts.

“He handles the ball very well,” Gravante said. “He’s a very good stopper, but you have to clear the ball. It has to be one and done in terms of knowing where to put it or directing it where to go, and he’s the most complete goalie.”

But there were also some strokes of good luck. Mount St. Mary’s scored a pair of man-down goals, the program’s first since 2015. The Mountaineers were also credited with a pair of team goals, once when the ball flew backward into the net when a Navy defenseman cocked his stick and another when senior Jeremy Wilson’s shot ricocheted off the cage and then a Navy player before landing in the goal.

“That’s luck on your side,” Gravante said. “That’s an in-the-moment situation. We took a shot, it hit the crossbar, hits a player and goes in. We had opportunities that fell in our direction. We had some opportunities we cashed in on. When you go back and watch the game, I realize how lucky we were at times.”