PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers men's lacrosse is heading to the Final Four for the first time in program history. The No. 6 seed Scarlet Knights will face No. 7 seed Cornell on Saturday in East Hartford, Conn. at Rentschler Field.

The game will be at noon, nationally televised by ESPN2. Westwood One (SiriusXM 84/Varsity Network App) and WRSU (88.7 FM) will have a radio broadcast for the game.  

Tickets for the game start at $26. You can visit here to purchase tickets to support the team in East Hartford.

This Team's Accomplishments

• First Final Four in program history
• Program Record for Wins (15, surpassing previous record of 11)
• Most ranked wins (6) in a season in program history
• Win over No. 3 Penn tied for highest ranked win in program history
• Three top-10 wins, doing so for second consecutive seasons
• 12-6 record against ranked foes over the past two years.
• Two NCAA Tournament wins in same season for first time in program history.
  • RU was 2-9 in NCAA games prior to 2021, now 3-1 in the last two years
• First RU men's program to make Final Four since 1994 (men's soccer)
  • Women's Soccer also made Final Four this academic year

With a Victory
A Rutgers win over Cornell would represent:

• A trip to the National Championship game for the first time in program history.
• The first Rutgers' athletics program to play in a national championship game since 1990 (men's soccer).  
• Rutgers' seventh ranked win of the season
• A program record fourth top-10 win in one season
• Rutgers would have 34 ranked wins since 2003 (25 under head coach Brian Brecht, all since 2015) and be 12-6 against ranked foes in the past two years.
• Give Brian Brecht his 150th career win as a collegiate head coach. 
• Third win ever over Cornell and first since 1957

About Rutgers
Rutgers will play in the Final Four this weekend after two strong performances in the NCAA Tournament. RU claimed an 11-9 win over No. 3 Penn in dramatic fashion. Down 8-6 with under 10 minutes to play, Rutgers called timeout, regrouped, and promptly went on a 5-0 run over the next eight minutes that sealed the victory.  

In the opening round, RU had a dominating performance with a 19-9 win over Harvard. In front of a raucous home crowd of 5,212, Ross Scott led the way with eight goals in the victory.

Rutgers leads the nation in turnovers (13.22) and clearing percentage (91.3%). The team is outscoring opponents 265-198, a margin of 3.94 per game.  

Ross Scott (49 goals) and Mitch Bartolo (43 goals) are RU's first ever duo with 40+ goals in the same season. The Scarlet Knights have five total players with 30+ goals, adding in Ronan Jacoby (36), Shane Knobloch (32) and Brian Cameron (32).

Ethan Rall, a First Team All-American, has caused 31 turnovers this season, shattering the program's single-season record in the category. Goalkeeper Colin Kirst has excelled in NCAA Tournament games, as he holds a 8.75 goals-against-average with 17 saves per game and seven ground balls per game over his four NCAA games the past two seasons.  

Record Chasing
Ross Scott enters the game will 49 goals this season. He is just one goal shy of tying for most goals in a single season in program history (Tom Sweeney, 50 goals in 1978).

Mitch Bartolo enters the game with 43 goals. That places him in a tie for eighth all-time in a season at RU.

Colin Kirst has 221 saves this season. He is six saves shy for tying John Schmunk (1990) for third most in a single-season all-time at RU, and needs 20 saves to match John Kidon (1995) for second.

Putting This Run in Perspective
The momentum for this program has been building for some time, with RU finally breaking through last season, making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004 and winning an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1990. That 2021 team pushed No. 1 UNC to the brink in the Quarterfinals, but fell in overtime.

While bringing back a large group of that veteran core, head coach Brian Brecht had to remake the roster. RU graduated its three starting attackmen, leading scorers and a trio of All-Americans: Adam Charalambides (44 goals), Connor Kirst (37 goals) and Kieran Mullins (28 goals). Then, in the final preseason scrimmage, RU lost what would have been its leading returning scorer, David Sprock (17 goals) to a season-ending injury. RU brought back just one returner (2021 Big Ten Freshman of the Year Shane Knobloch) who recorded double-digit goals last season.

On the offensive end, RU moved now junior Ross Scott (two previous career starts, both at midfield) to a starting attackman spot, and flanked him with transfers Mitch Bartolo (41 goals) and Brian Cameron (32 goals). Along with transfer Ronan Jacoby at midfield (36 goals) and Shane Knobloch doubling his goal total from last season, RU has retooled to rank ninth nationally in scoring offense at 14.72 goals per game.

On the defensive end, goalkeeper Colin Kirst was granted a medical redshirt in August to return for an unexpected additional year, and the additions of transfers Bryant Boswell (all-conference at Bucknell) and Brad Apgar (All-American at Salisbury) along with the emergence of freshman Remington Reynolds have aided the defense, alongside returning starters and stalwarts Jaryd Jean-Felix and Bobby Russo.  

Rutgers NCAA Tournament History
Rutgers is making its 11^th appearance all-time in the NCAA Tournament and does so for the second straight season. The Scarlet Knights previously reached the NCAA Tournament in 1972, 1974, 1975, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003, 2004 and 2021. The NCAA playoff system for men's lacrosse was implemented in 1971. The team has gone to new heights over the past two seasons, with a 3-1 record, first ever back-to-back tournaments with wins, and first ever Final Four.

1972: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Maryland in the Quarterfinals, 9-3 (8-Team Field)
1974: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Maryland in the Quarterfinals, 12-6 (8-Team Field)
1975: No. 8 Rutgers lost at No. 1 Cornell in the Quarterfinals, 18-5 (8-Team Field)
1984: No. 7 Rutgers lost at No. 2 Syracuse in the Quarterfinals, 8-7 (OT) (8-Team Field)
1986: No. 7 Rutgers WINS, hosting C.W. Post in the First Round, 13-8 (10-Team Field)
No. 7 Rutgers lost at No. 2 Syracuse in the Quarterfinals, 17-5
1990: unseeded Rutgers WINS at No. 6 Virginia, 7-6 in the First Round (12-Team Field)
Rutgers lost at No. 3 Loyola, 19-10 in the Quarterfinals
1991: unseeded Rutgers lost at No. 7 Maryland, 13-7 in the First Round (12-Team Field)
2003: No. 7 Rutgers lost, hosting Georgetown, 9-6 in the First Round (16-Team Field)
2004: unseeded Rutgers lost at No. 6 Princeton, 12-4 in the First Round (16-Team Field)
2021: unseeded Rutgers WINS vs. No. 8 Lehigh, 12-5 in the First Round (18-Team Field)
Rutgers lost vs. No. 1 UNC in the Quarterfinals, 12-11 (OT)
2022: No. 6 seed Rutgers WINS hosting Harvard, 19-9 in the First Round (18-Team Field)
No. 6 seed Rutgers WINS against No. 3 Penn in the Quarterfinals, 11-9

Championship Experience
While this is the first time that Rutgers will head to Championship Weekend, three members of the roster do have experience at this stage.

Brian Ward was a member of Yale squads that won the national championship in 2018 and returned to that game in 2019.

Ronan Jacoby was a member of the 2019 Wesleyan Division III national champions.

Brad Apgar went to two national championships with Division III Salisbury (2018 and 2019), losing to Jacoby's Wesleyan squad in 2019.

Stepping Up When It Counts
A big key to Rutgers' Quarterfinal win over No. 3 Penn was the depth throughout its roster, with a number of contributors stepping up in big moments with key performances.

Cole Daninger had his first multi-point game of the season as he had a career-high three assists. Freshman attackman Dante Kulas scored his first goal since March 19 at a huge time, tallying to put RU ahead 9-8 in the fourth quarter as they took the lead for good. Defenseman Bryant Boswell scored the first goal in his 60-game collegiate career, tallying the final RU goal of the game to provide an exclamation point. Rope unit members Ethan Rall (LSM) and Zackary Franckowiak (SSDM) also had key goals in the game. Kulas, Boswell, Rall and Francowiak had a combined 10 goals in a combined 55 games this season prior to scoring four combined goals in the quarterfinal victory.

Kirst vs. Kirst
Rutgers goalkeeper Colin Kirst will match up against one of his younger brothers for the second straight NCAA Tournament game. His brother CJ is a starting attackman at Cornell, second on the team with 50 goals this season. Colin also faced brother and attackman Cole (Lehigh) last season in the NCAA First Round. The Kirst brothers father, Kyle, played goalkeeper at Rutgers and was a high school lacrosse coach in New Jersey (Summitt HS) before passing away suddenly at 47 years old in 2015.

Shout out To the Rope Unit
Rutgers has received much acclaim for their transition game and early offense, dubbed by the program with the NASCAR moniker. The key to this part of RU's success is their rope unit of short-stick defensive midfielders and long-stick midfielders. RU has four veteran SSDM's: All-American Brennan Kamish (65 career games, three years in SSDM rotation), Zackary Franckowiak (60 games, five years in SSDM rotation), Cole Daninger (50 games, four years at SSDM) and Tommy Coyne (67 games, two years at SSDM). At long-stick midfield, Ethan Rall is a First Team All-American. He is joined by freshman Remington Reynolds (14 GB in 18 games) and senior Brad Apgar. The transition game is keyed by the outlets from goalkeeper Colin Kirst, among the best netminders nationally in that element of the game.

About the Opponent: Cornell
The Big Red outlasted unseeded Delaware, 10-8, to advance out of the Columbus Regional. They improved to 13-4 on the season under head coach Connor Buzcek in his first full season as head coach. His father, Gary, played football at Rutgers from 1984-1987 and as an alumn assisted the Rutgers' football equipment staff on gamedays. Rutgers and Cornell played six common opponents this season (each playing Ohio State twice), with RU holding a 6-1 record and Cornell posting a 5-2 record against those foes. 

The Big Red rank fourth in the nation in opponent clearing percentage (77.9%). John Piatelli leads the nation in goals per game (3.53).

Rutgers is 2-8 against Cornell all-time. The last matchup came in 1980 and RU's last win in the all-time series came in 1957.  

Rutgers has defeated two straight Ivy League opponents in the NCAA Tournament prior to facing its third this weekend. RU is 98-100-4 all-time against Ivy League teams. 99 of those 202 games have come against in-state rival Princeton, the longest-played series in RU history.  

Geared Up
As the higher seed in the Saturday semifinal, Rutgers will keep up its proud tradition of wearing its home white jerseys. RU will also wear red helmets. The Scarlet Knights are 9-0 this season when wearing white jerseys.

Getting Ahead of Ourselves
Rutgers is very familiar with each of the potential Championship Game opponents, as the other semifinal game will feature No. 1 Maryland and No. 5 Princeton. Rutgers and Princeton compete annually for the Meistrell Cup, and the in-state rivalry has been contested 99 times, including a 16-11 road loss at Princeton this season. Rutgers and Maryland give the Big Ten two conference members in the Final Four. A potential championship game matchup against the Terps would be a third meeting this season between the teams, who met both in the regular season and Big Ten Championship game. Rutgers would be looking for its first team NCAA national championship since 1949 (fencing).

Quotable
"This is special for the guys in our locker room, for the seniors especially that helped change this culture. It's really cool to be a part of this. We have a really good group in the locker room. It's the same thing every week, we want to keep things consistent, focus on Rutgers and have a great game plan."

Midfielder Shane Knobloch

"We're seizing every moment. We're so grateful to have this extra time together. It's a dream come true to be playing in the Final Four and we're working hard every day this week to keep things going."

Goalkeeper Colin Kirst

"We have a very veteran group. That's played a big role for this group in helping us keep our composure in big moments. I'm so grateful for this experience. I used to go to the Final Four as a kid every year, and those were some of my best memories growing up."

Attackman Brian Cameron

Coach Brecht Press Conference Transcript