2008 Men's Lacrosse Season-in-Review
May 20 | Men's Lacrosse
The 2008 Rutgers men's lacrosse season was chock-full of closely contested games against some of the best competition in the country. The 2008 season, most importantly, showed head coach Jim Stagnitta that a number of his young players are ready to step up in big moments to lead the Scarlet Knights into the future.
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KELLY |
Rutgers finished the year 6-7 overall and took home third place in the ECAC with a 4-3 conference mark. The Scarlet Knights faced eight opponents that were ranked in the top 20, including six squads who made appearances in the top 10 and three in the top five. Each of Rutgers' seven losses were to nationally ranked teams. The Scarlet Knights picked up their biggest win of the season on Feb. 24 when RU breezed past No. 11 UMBC, 13-4. UMBC ended the year ranked No. 5.
Rutgers was led by freshman attackman Kory Kelly (Princeton, N.J.), who was selected as the ECAC Co-Rookie of the Year after leading the Scarlet Knights with 24 goals. Other major contributors included sophomore Justin Pennington (Flemington, N.J.) and junior Chris O'Dougherty (Kinnelon, N.J.), who each garnered First Team All-ECAC honors after stellar seasons.
Kelly ranked sixth in the ECAC in scoring with 12 goals in seven games. Overall, he led the Scarlet Knights and was fifth in the ECAC with 1.9 goals per game. The freshman led RU in shots (85) and recorded a team-best four hat tricks on the year. He was named ECAC Rookie of the Week on four separate occasions.
Pennington, the 2007 ECAC Rookie of the Year, led the Scarlet Knights with 32 points on 22 goals and a team-high 10 assists. The sophomore also led the team and was 11th in the country, averaging 5.2 groundballs per game. Pennington, who handled a majority of the team's face-off's, won 92-of-171 attempts this year for a 53.8-percent average, good enough for 23rd-best in the nation.
O'Dougherty, an Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-American, anchored an RU defense that was ranked in the top 30 in both scoring defense and man-down defense. The junior started all 13 games, scooping 30 groundballs and causing six turnovers.
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PENNINGTON |
Goalkeeper Billy Olin (Horseheads, N.Y.) posted a stellar sophomore campaign, ranking 20th nationally in save percentage. The sophomore stopped 57 percent of shots he faced, while recording 144 saves. Additionally, Olin placed 26th in the country in goals-against average. He allowed only 8.77 goals a game.
Other Scarlet Knights who were honored by the ECAC throughout the season included sophomore Gerhard Buehning (Essex Fells, N.J.), who was named to the ECAC Honor Roll twice and sophomore Hunter Burnard (Binghamton, N.Y.), who made the Honor Roll on April 21. Pennington won Offensive Player of the Week after scoring five goals against Delaware on March 1, Olin won co-Defensive Player of the Week after shutting down UMBC in the first week of the season and after holding Penn State to four goals on April 20, and O'Dougherty made the Honor Roll once.
The Scarlet Knights will return a plethora of young talent next season. Of RU's top eight scorers, only one is an upperclassman.
