PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 10 Rutgers men's lacrosse opened the season with a 15-6 victory as the Scarlet Knights took down LIU. Rutgers was led by five goals from
Mitch Bartolo, who had a career-high in goals, points (six) and ground balls (four) in his Scarlet Knights debut.
Ross Scott,
Ronan Jacoby and
Michael Sanguinetti each added two goals apiece.
Shane Knobloch,
Bobby Russo,
Nick Teresky and
Eric Civetti also tallied in the game.
Rutgers outplayed LIU throughout the game, leading 51-22 in shots and 41-20 in ground balls. RU forced the Sharks into 31 turnovers.
Rutgers was in control from the oustet, taking scoring the first six goals of the game and holding LIU scoreless for the first 26 minutes of the contest. RU led 7-2 at halftime, and held at least a five-goal lead for the duration of the game from there.
QUOTABLE
"We had a great week of practice. We knew had to just go out and execute and play our game, and that's what we did. We played hard, and I think that showed.We fell back on our fundamentals and what we do, not worrying about their game plan, but we just play our game and go out and make plays. We played hard, we played with energy. Some good things out there today, and we'll keep going over it in film and moving forward. It's about learning from our mistakes, cleaning those up. We're never satisfied and just need to keep bringing that energy every day."
-
Mitch Bartolo
POSTGAME NOTES
- Rutgers improved to 10-1 in season openers under head coach Brian Brecht, winning its 10th straight season opener.
- Brian Brecht won his 70th game as RU head coach.
- Rutgers debuts: Brad Apgar, Mitch Bartolo, Ronan Jacoby, Sam Stephan, Bryant Boswell
- Collegiate debuts: Dante Kulas, Remington Reynolds, Luke Romanek
- First start at Rutgers: Brad Apgar, Mitch Bartolo, Ronan Jacoby
- First career goal: Nick Teresky (also had his first career ground ball and caused turnover)
- First career assist: Ethan Rall
- First career faceoff win: Luke Romanek
- Ross Scott and Michael Sanguinetti each tied their previous career high with two goals
- Ronan Jacoby had five ground balls, tying his career high
- Dominic Carter had a career-high two ground balls