PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 4 Rutgers men's lacrosse is back home for the second straight nationally televised Big Ten contest at SHI Stadium. The Scarlet Knights will host Johns Hopkins in a Sunday night, 7 pm showdown on Big Ten Network.
Rutgers has opened the season with a 9-1 record, marking the team's best record through 10 games since 1956. Last week, RU dominated No. 8/9 Ohio State, winning the Big Ten Conference opener 18-7. The Scarlet Knights claimed their fourth straight win over Ohio State and third ranked victory of the season. RU is now 8-4 against ranked foes the past two seasons, including five wins against top ten teams.
RU was led by four goals and three assists from
Ross Scott, named Big Ten Co-Offensive Player of the Week, while defenseman
Jaryd Jean-Felix was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week.
Jonathan Dugenio (15 faceoff wins),
Zackary Franckowiak (four ground balls, two caused turnovers),
Colin Kirst (13 saves, seven goals allowed) and
Mitch Bartolo (four goals) were among many contributors to the effort that saw RU rally from an early 3-0 deficit to outscore the Buckeyes 13-2 in the final 32 minutes of the contest.
On the season,
Ross Scott leads the team with 30 goals, 19 assists and 49 points.
Ethan Rall is ninth in the Big Ten with 2.3 caused turnovers per game.
Colin Kirst is ninth nationally with a .569 save percentage and 11
th with a 9.73 goals-against-average.
As a team, Rutgers is in the top-10 nationally in six categories: turnovers (first, 13.6), scoring offense (second, 16.7), scoring margin (second, 6.4), clearing percentage (second, .925), assists (fifth, 9.20 and caused turnovers (eighth, 10.0).
Rutgers was recognized with five Midseason All-Americans as Inside Lacrosse unveiled its listing on Thursday following media voting. Long-stick midfielder
Ethan Rall was named to the First Team, attackman
Ross Scott, goalkeeper
Colin Kirst and short-stick defensive midfielder
Brennan Kamish were named to the Third Team, and midfielder
Shane Knobloch was named Honorable Mention. Rutgers was one of six teams with five All-Americans overall and one of just three teams with four total players on the top three teams.
The game will be nationally televised by Big Ten Network with Pete Medhurst and Mark Dixon on the call. WRSU Student Radio will also have a broadcast, with Jake Schmied and Chris Tsakonas on the call.
Watch Live: BTN | Live Stats
The game will be Youth Lacrosse Night, with youths eighth grade and under in lacrosse jerseys getting in for free. Last week vs. Ohio State, the initial Youth Lacrosse Day of the season, saw a crowd of 4,108 that was the second largest in program history, short of the program record of 5,048 (2018 versus Syracuse) and surpassing the 2016 game against Johns Hopkins (3,653). The last two meetings against the Blue Jays have drawn over 3,000 fans, with 3,014 fans attending the 2018 meeting. The 4,108 fans at last week's game represented the fifth largest men's Division I game of the season, and second largest crowd for a Big Ten team this season.
Rutgers has had great success of late at SHI Stadium. The Scarlet Knights are 5-0 this season, 11-2 over the past three seasons at home and 35-8 over the past seven seasons at home.
"We've been getting better each week. I've been very happy with our guys' effort and the progression we've made from week-to-week. We had a great win over Ohio State last Sunday. Our guys were focused and ready to have success against a top-ten team. Hopefully that gives us momentum going forward.
Johns Hopkins is a blue-blood team with a lot of tradition, history and some talented players. They came on last year at the end of the season. They've played a competitive schedule so far. We're certainly expecting a lot out of them. It's about us and playing our systems to the best of our abilities. We have to take care of ourselves and be ready to compete for 60 minutes when the whistle blows."
"It's a sixty-minute game. Our captains do a great job of keeping everyone focused throughout the game and we have a great team mentality on focusing on our job. We have a very experienced team, we just have to take what's given to us and try not to force anything."
The game marks the 44th meeting all time between the two squads, dating back to a first meeting in 1920, with the Blue Jays holding a 35-8 lead. In 2015, both teams joined the Big Ten, with the Scarlet Knights entrance into the conference leading to the league adding Johns Hopkins as an affiliate member. Since both teams became conference rivals, Rutgers has won four of the nine meetings. Two of those wins came in 2016, and the other two came this past season.
Rutgers faced Johns Hopkins three times last season, defeating the Blue Jays both times in the regular season before falling in the Big Ten Tournament. RU first claimed a 15-9 road win over the Blue Jays, propelled by a 7-1 final quarter. The team then claimed a win at home on Senior Day, with a 17-11 victory.
Johns Hopkins enters the matchup at 5-5 overall and are receiving votes in the national polls. JHU opened 3-1, with a win over mutual opponent Loyola, but are 2-4 in their last six games. The Blue Jays opened Big Ten play last week with a home, 15-12 win over Michigan, led by three goals and four assists from Jacob Angelus, who shared Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors with
Ross Scott. On the season, captain Joey Epstein leads the team with 32 points (19 goals, 13 assists), while Garrett Degnon has a team-high 23 goals. Josh Kirson has started all 10 games in the cage with a .498 save percentage and 12.27 goals-against-average. Tyler Dunn is 90-of-181 (49.7%) on faceoffs.
With a win, Rutgers would:
- Be 10-1 through 11 games, marking the fastest RU reached double-digit wins in program history.
- The previous fastest was the 1982 team, the first ever RU squad to reach the 10-win plateau, which did so in the 12th game of the season.
- Reached double-digit wins for the first time since 2017 and third time under head coach Brian Brecht (also in 2016).
- Mark the seventh double-digit win season in program history (1982, 1986, 1990, 2003, 2016, 2017, 2022)
- Earn its ninth lifetime win over Johns Hopkins
- Ensure wins in three of the past four meetings with the Blue Jays.
- Start Big Ten play with a 2-0 record for the second straight season and third time since joining the league.
Since joining the Big Ten Conference in 2015, RU is 19-17 in Big Ten play (excluding the Big Ten Tournament). The Scarlet Knights are 11-5 over the past three seasons after starting this season 1-0.
Since Rutgers started tracking caused turnovers in 2006,
Ethan Rall has the best caused turnover per game number in program history (1.4 CT/game).
Caused Turnovers
1. 1. 84 Nick Contino (2011-14)
2. 67 Jacob Fradkin (2009-12)
t-3. 59 Kyle Pless (2016-19)
t-3. 59 Andrew D'Agostino (2008-11)
5. 56
Ethan Rall (2019-22)
6. 55 Michael Rexrode (2015-18)
Caused Turnovers Per Game
1. 1.40
Ethan Rall (40 games) 2019-22
2. 1.38 Nick Contino (61 games) 2011-14
3. 1.34 Andrew D'Agostino (44 games) 2008-11
4. 1.14 Jacob Fradkin (59 games) 2009-12
5. 1.00 Michael Rexrode (55 games) 2015-18
6. 0.98 Kyle Pless (60 games) 2016-19
Rutgers has scored 20+ goals three different times this season, posting 23 goals at St. John's and 22 goals in wins last week against Lafayette and Hofstra. The team also reached 20+ goals three times last season, with 22 goals against Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan.
Prior to scoring 20+ goals six times over the course of the last two seasons, RU had only reached 20+ goals five times in the first nine seasons under head coach
Brian Brecht and only six times between 1999 and 2020. There have only been five seasons in program history with at least three games of 20+ goals, with two of the five coming this season and last (2022, 2021, 1994, 1989, 1955).
As of last weekend's contest, RU has a collection of players among the NCAA's active career leaders.
Ronan Jacoby is third in goals per game (2.97) and fourth in goals (172).
Sam Stephan is third in faceoff attempts (1,066), third in ground balls (362) and sixth in faceoffs won (571).
The Rutgers men's lacrosse program is mourning the loss of former head coach Tom Hayes, a lacrosse icon who coached the Scarlet Knights from 1975 to 2000 and led the team to 21 winning seasons and to final top-20 rankings for 24-straight years. He also had a large impact on the growth of lacrosse at the international level. Rutgers will wear a memorial nameplate with his name on the back of his jersey all season long.
The Scarlet Knights will wear a patch with the initials REM on their home and away uniforms in remembrance of former Rutgers Athletic Director Robert "Bob" Mulcahy who passed away February. The 10th athletic director in Rutgers history, Mulcahy became the third to be inducted into the school's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017 following an 11-year career leading the Scarlet Knights. Mulcahy, who served as Director of Athletics from 1998 to 2009, was a visionary in New Jersey athletics and was instrumental in building Rutgers University football toward national prominence. Coming off a winless season the year before his arrival, Mulcahy worked steadfastly to improve conditions for the football program. His hire of head coach
Greg Schiano led to resurgence in the program which snapped a nearly 30-year postseason drought to advance for the Insight Bowl in 2005.
Rutgers will play its first road game in conference play. RU travels to No. 1 Maryland for another Sunday night 7 p.m. BTN contest.
