Rutgers Men's Lacrosse Falls at No. 5 Syracuse
Apr 11 | Men's Lacrosse
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Despite holding No. 5 Syracuse to their third lowest goal output of the season, the Rutgers men’s lacrosse team fell 10-3 Saturday afternoon in front of 5,112 fans at the Carrier Dome.
Junior Gerhard Buehning (Essex Fells, N.J.) had two scores for RU and classmate Justin Pennington (Flemington, N.J.) added a goal to pace the Scarlet Knight offense.
“This game was kind of a snapshot of what our season has been like,” said head coach Jim Stagnitta. “We had some great opportunities and we didn’t capitalize. We’ve struggled finishing all year. I thought we played hard but a good team like Syracuse will make you pay when you make the kind of mistakes we did today.”
Rutgers (4-8) outshot Syracuse (8-2) in the opening half, 14-12, but the Scarlet Knights were unable to get one by Orange goalkeeper John Galloway. Syracuse took advantage of its 12 shots, scoring on five. Five different Orange players scored and the Scarlet Knights trailed 5-0 at the half.
Syracuse would push its lead to 6-0 before Pennington tallied his 10th goal of the season just over five minutes into the second half. The Scarlet Knights regained possession after the face-off and Mike Diehl (Flemington, N.J.) ripped a shot off the post that could have brought RU to within four scores.
The Orange would take advantage of RU’s lost opportunity, scoring the next four goals to push their lead to 10-1 midway through the fourth quarter. Rutgers would get back on the scoreboard as Buehning netted consecutive goals with less than seven minutes remaining to cut the final deficit to 10-3.
Junior goalkeeper Billy Olin (Horseheads, N.Y.) recorded seven saves, while senior Peter Pantages (Roseland, N.Y.) made two. Galloway tallied eight saves for the Orange.
Rutgers will return to ECAC play on Saturday, April 18 against Penn State. The game will be held at Rutgers Stadium at 11:30 a.m. with the Scarlet-White spring football game following at 2 p.m.
