John Hackworth

Navy opens Patriot League play this Saturday at Boston University.

Junior midfielder Duncan Sullivan scored his first goal of the season off a penalty kick as Navy men's soccer earned a 1-1 draw with Holy Cross in the first Patriot League game of the Coach John Hackworth era.

A Holy Cross handball put Sullivan on the line, and he used a stutter step to freeze the goaltender before delivering a shot into the low right corner.

Sophomore goalie Sam Clark recorded a career-high seven saves for Navy, which improved to one, two, and four overall.

And I think overall, as we just kind of look at our grades, Tom, I'll let you take your grades first, and then we'll get into Jake's, and then I'll share mine.

yeah i'm going to say b as in bumpy but we got there um this really i feel this window was a at times painful passing of the torch into the new era um and we saw some old favorites you know getting moved on for just new injections of offensive life that quite frankly uh look very very promising and i'm just i'm very excited about the direction of this club right now and like i'm thinking back to you know okay yeah i'm thinking you know you're looking at downs you're looking at zhang you're looking at brunet and like i'm thinking back to like the likes of josh yarrow akil watts and uh i'll even throw kyle hebert out there all of john hackworth's buddies Basically, like all of his favorites, like maybe players that, you know, don't have that sizzle and excitement.

But John Hackworth knows them.

So, you know, that's that's why we have them.

Now we are bringing in players that are that have potential, that are hungry, that have something to prove and actually, you know, could end up being very valid contributors over time.

It's just, it's frustrating if that played into it.

The other, the last thing on that is I still wish that Corey Ray would have leaned more into the, the honest to God truth that some players just, uh, they were good and great for St. Louis under Bradley Carnell, John Hackworth, and David Critchley.

They were brought in to play gegenpressing soccer.

Lutz Pfannenstiel had a specific identity for this club.

Navy welcomes in-state rival Maryland to the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility on Thursday night with a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Meanwhile, the John Hackworth era of Navy men's soccer got off to a rough start with a 7-0 loss to the University of California, San Diego.

However, Navy bounced back in fine fashion by playing San Diego State to a 2-2 tie.

Nick Gallucci scored both goals for the midshipmen, while fellow sophomore midfielder Will Caulfield Nick Gallucci scored both goals for the midshipmen, with fellow sophomore midfielder Will Caulfield and senior midfielder and team captain Nate Stewart being credited with assists.

on and off the ball.

And the quality of players that Yohan Demay had at the beginning of the season were more or less holdovers from the Lutz finish deal era, the, the John Hackworth, the David Critchley, the Bradley Carnells, the players who had been signed from the get-go and were very much gang and pressing very much counterattacking team.

And so all of those, those things set us up for this one win in our first nine or 10 matches.

uh the one in ten over

The, the club and Edu Looven couldn't reach a deal on his long-term future, we wish him the best, yada, yada, then they're gonna think the club is just siphoning off all their best players.

And, and the idea of system fits and the, what works for Johan De May and what might have worked for Bradley Carnell and John Hackworth and David Critchley not being the same here goes over a lot of people's heads, and that's not a detriment to their opinion or view of the team.

It's just a fact.

Not everybody goes as in the weeds as us and looks to see why certain players are getting minutes, or why Edu Looven was a leading goal contributor, but yet he couldn't reliably crack the starting 11 and definitely wasn't going the full 90 for Johan De May.

They can connect the ball enough.

They've done it under Bradley Carnell, John Hackworth, And David Critchley.

And so it's an assumption that they can slot right in and play those positions under Johan Demay.

And I think that's where the fundamental difference comes into me when we're seeing Dirkkelman have the opportunity at central midfield nonstop versus triangle struck or putting Luvin there and the quality inherently of Luvin being higher than Dirkkelman.