PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 9 Rutgers men's lacrosse made a statement in its first Big Ten win of the season, defeating No. 17 Michigan 16-8 on Senior Day and Alumni Appreciation Day. The Scarlet Knights (8-3, 1-1 Big Ten) raced out to a 12-0 lead, blanking the Wolverines (7-4, 0-2) in the opening half, en route to their largest ever margin of victory over a Big Ten foe. 

Sophomore Kieran Mullins, who set a career-high last season with eight goals at Michigan, equaled that performance against Sunday with eight tallies in the victory. Senior Connor Vercruysse had his first career multi-goal game with a career-best four goals and five points. 

"This was a big day, honoring our 14 seniors and having all of our alumni back," head coach Brian Brecht said. "This was a good conference win. We were very focused in practice this week with our preparation. We did things the right way today. I'm very proud of all our guys and especially all of the hard work that this group of seniors has done to make this a top-10 program. Collectively as a whole these seniors from top to bottom has been instrumental in our successes."

Senior Jules Heningburg added six points on a goal and a season-high five assists, while senior Christian Mazzone scored twice. Senior goalkeeper Max Edelmann made a season-high 14 saves. 

"This senior group is really special," senior goalkeeper Max Edelmann said. "We had a lot of alumni here today and it was really great to get this win in front of all our home fans. There's a lot of leadership and a lot of talent in that senior class. Over the past few years, we've really meshed together well, on and off the field, which gives us great chemistry."

The Scarlet Knights rolled right from the start, scoring the first 12 goals of the game. Freshman Ryan Gallagher scored the first goal of the game four minutes in, and the home team never looked back. RU led 2-0 after one quarter, with Edelmann making six saves in the opening stanza. 

Then in the second quarter, RU outscored the visitors 6-0 to take an eight-goal halftime lead. Mullins scored four straight first half goals, then it was Mazzone who tallied twice in the final 31 seconds of the half for the 8-0 lead at the intermission. 

In the second half, the Scarlet Knights picked up right where they left off, scoring three times in the first 97 seconds of the second stanza. It took Michigan 34 minutes to finally get on the scoreboard, doing so after RU scored 12 times. The Wolverines scsored the final five goals of the game to make the final margin closer, but RU held on for the 16-8 win. 

"Kieran has been great for us," Brecht said. "He's such a strong competitor and a great teammate. He's someone that really has helped us get to this level."

Next up for RU is a road trip to No. 2 Maryland. That game will take place next Sunday night at 7 pm, televised nationwide on Big Ten Network. 

"The seniors have done so much for this program, it's great to get this win for those guys," Mullins said. "This is a great feeling and just a great team win for us."

Postgame Notes
- This was the 50th win for head coach Brian Brecht at Rutgers
- Rutgers shut out Michigan in the first half, taking an 8-0 lead into the intermission. That was the first time RU shut out a team in a half since doing so against NJIT in the second half in 2015. 
- Mullins had eight goals for the second time in his career, which ties for third on the single-game goals list and fifth (10 points) on the single-game points list
- Mullins' eight goals is tied for the most goal's in a game by any NCAA player this year (Loyola's Kevin Lindley vs. Holy Cross, March 4 and Denver's Ethan Walker vs. Villanova April 6)
- In conference games, Mullins leads RU with nine goals and 14 points. 
- Edelmann surpassed 100 saves on the season in the game. 
- Heningburg tied his season-high with five assists. He extended his goal-scoring streak to 15 games, the fifth longest streak in the nation. 
- His 27 assists this season are a new career-high 
- He now has 192 career points, which is seventh on the all-time points leaderboard
- On the season, Heningburg leads RU with 30 goals, 27 assists and 57 points. 
- The eight-goal margin of victory was the team's most ever in a Big Ten Conference game (previously won by 7 goals four separate times)
- It was the largest margin of victory since a 17-4 win over No. 14 Stony Brook last season.
- This was Rutgers third ranked win of the season (also defeated No. 17 Lehigh and No. 12 Syracuse)
- Christian Mazzone has tied his previous career-high with eight assists on the season. This was his eighth multi-goal game. He has scored in every game this season. He also scooped five ground balls, tying Garrett Michaeli with a team-high 30 ground balls. 
- Joe Francisco was 12-of-19 on faceoffs with a team-high six ground balls.  
- Rutgers honored 14 seniors in a postgame ceremony: Joe Francisco, Christian Trasolini, Chad Toliver, Jules Heningburg, Max Edelmann, Austin Divitcos, Alex Bronzo, Christian Scarpello, Christian Mazzone, Michael Rexrode, Steve Hillenbrand, Liam King, Connor Vercruysse and Alex Schoen. 
- Rutgers honored three sets of alumni in a halftime ceremony: the 1968 team (50th anniversary), the 2003 NCAA Tournament team (15th anniversary) and the seven RU world team players.