After a week-long break from action, the Army West Point and Navy men's soccer teams are ready to get back on the pitch and will do so at the sixth annual Army-Navy Cup at Talen Energy Stadium in Philadelphia Sunday at 2 p.m.
Entering Sunday's rivalry contest, the Black Knights hold an even 2-2 record in league play and an 8-4 mark overall. The Mids are currently the only Patriot League school without a league win, sitting 0-3-1 in the conference and 2-9-1 overall.
Army and Navy have been battling it out on the pitch since 1939 with the Mids leading the all-time series, 40-29-14. However, the Black Knights have claimed the previous two meetings, including a 1-0 win last season.
ARMY-NAVY CUP
Talen Energy Stadium played host to the inaugural Army-Navy Cup in 2012. Since then, the series has been deadlocked with each side holding a 2-2-1 record. The debut edition in 2012 ended in a draw. Navy won in both 2013 and 2014, while Army has taken the contest in each of the last two years.
The Army-Navy Cup began in Chester in 2012 with Army and Navy playing to a 1-1 draw. In the Army-Navy Cup II in 2013, Joseph Greenspan scored the game-winning goal for Navy in the 107th minute of double overtime for the 1-0 win. In 2014 at Army-Navy Cup III, Navy's Derek Vogel netted the game-winning goal in double overtime in the 107th minute for a 1-0 win. Army defeated Navy, 2-1, in Army-Navy Cup IV in 2015 and the Black Knights also defeated Navy in the Army-Navy Cup V last season, 1-0.
The Army-Navy Cup has drawn some of the biggest crowds in college soccer history to Talen Energy Stadium. Last year's crowd of 10,092 was the third-largest in the country in 2016, behind only the two games of the annual UC Santa Barbara vs. Cal Poly home-and-home series (11,424 and 11,075).
The Army-Navy Cup also drew 10,168 fans in 2014 and 9,316 fans in 2015. The 2014 (10,168) and 2016 (10,092) Army-Navy Cup crowds rank as the 21st and 23rd largest regular-season crowds in NCAA men's soccer history.
Prior to Army-Navy Cup VI, the Army Jump Team will deliver the game ball and there will be a ceremonial pregame coin toss with U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan. There will be a fan fest on the Toyota Plaza prior to the game at Talen Energy Stadium. At halftime, two Philadelphia-area high school soccer players who live by the motto "If Not Me Then Who..." will receive the second annual First Lieutenant Travis Manion & Corporal Michael Crescenz Award and the band from Valley Forge Military Academy will perform.
ARMY
• Army dropped its most recent league contest, 2-1, to Loyola last Saturday in Baltimore.
• The Black Knights feature the second-best scoring offense in the Patriot League with 17 goals, while boasting the fewest goals allowed (8) to the opposition.
• Army features two of the top-three scorers in the league in sophomores Rex Epps (6) and Keenan O'Shea (5).
• The Cadets have outshot the opposition 174-100 on the season and have held the edge in shots in 11 of 12 games.
• The second half has been very favorable to the Black Knights, with 11 of their 17 goals coming in the second stanza.
• Justin Stoll continues to sit atop the league rankings in goals-against average (.653) and second in save percentage (.778).
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NAVY
The Army-Navy Men's Soccer Star Match is part of the overall 2017-18 Army-Navy Star Series presented by USAA, which Army currently leads, 2-0, after beating Navy in men's golf and sprint football. Star competitions in women's soccer, men's and women's cross country and volleyball will also be contested this weekend.
Navy will be trying to snap a three-game losing skid on Sunday. The Mids have dropped league contests to Loyola (2-0), American (3-2 in overtime) and Lehigh (1-0) in their last three outings. Navy outshot Lehigh in its last game on Saturday, but the Mountain Hawks were able to score the game's lone goal the 82nd minute to take the win.
Senior Daniel Zaremba leads Navy in scoring this season with seven points on three goals and one assist. Senior Aubrey Jones is second on the team with six points on three goals. Zaremba has 24 career points on nine goals and six assists, while Jones has 20 career points on nine goals and two assists.
Freshman Phillip Gustafson has scored two goals for four points this season, while junior TJ Powers has a team-high four assists in 2017.
Senior goalkeeper Mac Burke has a 1.53 goals-against average and a .747 save percentage. Burke leads the Patriot League in saves per game at 4.67.
Burke, Jones and sophomore defender Diego Manrique have played all 1,128 minutes of the 2017 season for Navy. Additionally, Navy has a group of five freshmen in Gustafson, Toni Adewole, Wyatt Millard, Jarvian Wigfall and Nicko West who have combined to play 27 percent of Navy's total team minutes this season, which is the most by a group of freshmen since 2010, when 10 freshmen combined to play 32 percent of the team's minutes.
Army enters the weekend at 8-4 overall and 2-2 in the Patriot League. After posting back-to-back conference wins over Colgate (2-0) and Lafayette (1-0), Army lost at Loyola, 2-1, on Saturday.
Sophomore forward Rex Epps leads the team with 16 points on six goals and four assists, while sophomore forward Keenan O'Shea is second on the team with 14 points on five goals and four assists.
Sophomore goalkeeper Justin Stoll is 8-4 with a 0.65 goals-against average and a .778 save percentage. Stoll has six shutouts this season.
Army is ranked fourth in this week's USC Northeast Regional rankings and the Black Knights were receiving nine voting points in last week's USC Top 25 Poll. Army is not receiving any votes in this week's poll.
Army ranks second in the Patriot League in scoring offense (1.4), while Navy is fifth (1.0). Army is first in goals allowed per game (0.67) and Navy is sixth (1.58).
Following the Army-Navy Cup, the Mids will next play at Howard on Wednesday, Oct. 18 in their final non-conference game of the season.