Rutgers Men's Lacrosse Heads to Jacksonville
Apr 09 | Men's Lacrosse
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (April 9, 2010) - The Rutgers men's lacrosse team will step out of conference play when it travels to battle Jacksonville Saturday at noon at the D.B. Milne Field.
The Scarlet Knights (5-3, 1-1) are coming off an 11-10 loss against the St. John's Red Storm last Saturday. Senior midfielder Gerhard Buehning (Essex Fells, N.J.) scored a career-high four goals against STJ en route to be named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll.
The Dolphins (4-6) are in their first year of existence and are led by Mat Kerwick. Last time out, Jacksonville fell at No. 7 Duke by a 16-7 score.
"(Jacksonville) is not your regular first-year program," said Rutgers head coach Jim Stagnitta. "I have known Matt (Kerwick) for a while and he is a good coach. They have some really talented players and they are extremely dangerous on the offensive end. They take a lot of chances and when they are on they can score a lot of goals. They play at a frantic place."
The RU offense continues to rank among the nation's best, as the squad owns the 19th-best scoring average (11.13) in the country. Senior midfielder Justin Pennington (Flemington, N.J.) leads the Scarlet Knights in points (25) and assists (11). He has scored multiple points in all eight games this season. The All-BIG EAST Preseason Selection has notched a point in 17 straight games. Junior Kory Kelly (Princeton, N.J.) owns a team-best 17 goals.
Junior Brian Shemesh (Hillsborough, N.J.), sophomore Jacob Fradkin (Owings Mills, Md.) and redshirt-sophomore Andrew D'Agostino (Syracuse, N.Y.) have led the defensive effort for RU, as they have started the past seven games.
Fradkin has forced 13 turnovers which leads the Scarlet Knights. Shemesh is right behind Fradkin with eight. D'Agostino ranks second on the team in ground balls with 29. The RU trio has spearheaded the squad to the nation's fourth-best scoring defense at 7.38.
After the Jacksonville game, Rutgers will be on short rest as the squad will play at Princeton on Tuesday at 7 p.m. GAME NOTES
