PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 9/9 Rutgers men's lacrosse is back on the road this weekend and will face a top-10 foe on the road in No. 7/7 Johns Hopkins. The game is 3 p.m. on Saturday.
ON THE AIR
The game will air nationwide on ESPNU as Joe Beninati and Don Zimmerman will have the call.
All five regular season Big Ten games are slated to be on national television, between Big Ten Network (three) and ESPNU (two). BTN will also air the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and championship games.
ABOUT THE SCARLET KNIGHTS
No. 9/9 Rutgers capped off non-conference play with a 7-1 record, losing just by one goal to Army, who is currently ranked No. 8. The team then took an 11-7 loss to No. 19 Ohio State. Missing starting attackman
Brian Cameron for the second straight game due to injury, RU had a season-low output on the offensive end. In his place,
Eric Civetti started and had a two-goal game for the third time in the past four games. In addition,
Noah Daniels had his first multi-goal game at Rutgers, and Jon Dugenio had a season-high 11 ground balls, winning 70% of his faceoffs.
In the national rankings, Rutgers is second in turnovers (12.2 per game), seventh in scoring defense (9.33), ninth in scoring margin (4.44) and 14
th in scoring offense (13.78), leading the Big Ten in all those categories.
The last time Rutgers' finished a season with a scoring defense under 9.5 goals per game (as it is currently) was the 2016-17 season (RU finished at 9.07). That was also the last time that RU finished in the top-15 nationally in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
RU has excelled in third quarters this spring, outscoring opponents, 35-16. Over the last six contests, RU has outscored opponents 25-9 in the third quarter.
Rutgers is 12-4 in Big Ten play dating back to 2021.
RU is at No. 16 in the RPI following their last game. They are 1-2 against the top-20 in the RPI, and 6-0 against teams 20-60.
Ethan Rall (2nd Team),
Shane Knobloch (Third Team) and
Ross Scott (Honorable Mention) were all
named Midseason All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse.
WITH A VICTORY
A win over JHU would represent:
- Third ranked win of the season.
- First ranked road win of the season
- First ranked road win in Big Ten Conference play since 2021 at Johns Hopkins
- Two top-10 wins this season for RU, the third straight season winning multiple games over top-10 teams.
- Wins in four of the past five games against Johns Hopkins
- 6-5 record against Johns Hopkins since both schools joined the Big Ten (4-30 prior to joining the league from 1920 to 1998).
- 10th win all-time vs Hopkins (would be 10-35 in series that dates back to 1920).
MILESTONE WATCH
Ethan Rall is second all-time in caused turnovers with 74 in his career. The senior is 10 away from tying the program record that belongs to Nick Contino (2011-14), who had 84 as a Scarlet Knight.
Ross Scott is 14 goals away from reaching 100 for his career.
Brian Cameron is eight goals away from reaching 100 for his career. He scored 38 with UNC and 54 with Rutgers.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Rutgers is 9-35 all-time against Johns Hopkins in a series that dates back to 1920. The two schools joined the Big Ten together in 2015 after not playing in the previous 17 seasons. Since then, the series is even at 5-5. Most recently, RU has won three of the past four meetings. RU is also 2-2 in the last four meetings at Homewood Field, including one at the Big Ten Tournament hosted by JHU. RU won 12-7 last season and went 2-1 against Johns Hopkins during the 2021 campaign.
Shane Knobloch led RU with three goals and two assists in last year's win.
A win on Saturday would mark the third time that RU has claimed back-to-back victories over Johns Hopkins. In RU's last three wins over Johns Hopkins, the Scarlet Knights have outscored the Blue Jays, 44-27
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
Johns Hopkins started the season at 8-3. After losses to UNC, Loyola and Virginia (all ranked in 13 or better in this week's Media Poll), JHU has won four straight games, including a 15-11 win against Michigan in the Big Ten lid lifter.
Jacob Angelus is fourth nationally with 2.8 assists per game, leading the Blue Jays with 37 points. Garrett Degnon leads the team in goals with 25. The graduate student has scored 2.50 goals per game, good for third in the conference. On the other side of the ball, defender Scott V. Smith leads the team with his 15 caused turnovers this season. He has also picked up 18 ground balls.Alex Mazzone, who's older brother Christian was an All-American at RU, has 42 ground balls as a starting close defenseman. Tyler Dunn is 50% on faceoffs (83-of-166), and Tim Marcille is at a 11.58 goals-against-average and a .530 save percentage.
#ULYSTRONG
Rutgers will be wearing burgundy shoelaces the remainder of the season in support of their equipment manager, Uly Molina, who was recently diagnosed with throat cancer and is undergoing radiation treatments. Molina graduated from Rutgers in 1989 and has been a member of the equipment staff ever since. There is a fundraiser for Uly that can be viewed
here and updates about Uly's progress will be posted
here.
