PISCATAWAY, N. J. – No. 17 Rutgers men's lacrosse is set to head back on the road this weekend. The Scarlet Knights head to Loyola for a 1 pm game in Baltimore. There will be a live stream for the game on ESPN+.
Rutgers stands at 2-1 overall, with wins over Lehigh and at Stony Brook and a loss to No. 6 Army. Freshman
Colin Kurdyla had a breakthrough game against the No. 6 Black Knights, scoring three goals for his first career multi-goal game. He scored on three of five shots and represented 42% of RU's goal-scoring in the game.
Rutgers is 17-3 in non-conference play over the past three seasons. The Scarlet Knights are 6-2 in road non-conference games over that span.
In the national statistics, Rutgers man-up offense is fifth in the country at 71.4%.
Shane Knobloch has been responsible for three man-up goals, second most in the nation, just one behind William Delano at Hobart.
Ross Scott is second in the Big Ten with 2.67 assists per game. He has eight assists through three games, with multiple assists in each game, along with five goals for a team-high 13 points, ranking fifth in the league at 4.33 points per game. Knobloch leads the team with eight goals and is second with 10 points.
At the faceoff 'X', newcomer
Cole Brams is 32-of-56 (57.1%). Brams is second in the Big Ten with 7.0 ground balls per game.
Rutgers heads down to Maryland with three natives of the Old Line State on its roster. The group includes starting goalkeeper
Cardin Stoller (Owings Mills, Md.), starting defenseman
Ben McKelvy (Kent Island, Md.) and top long-stick midfielder
Ryan Splaine (Rockville, Md.)
Loyola opened the season with a big win over No. 11 Georgetown, downing them 18-10 to improve to vault to No. 12 in the polls. The Greyhounds then took two losses to top-10 ranked Big Ten teams in No. 4 Maryland and No. 10 Johns Hopkins, and fell out of both polls, coming in at the top receiving votes spot this week. After scoring 18 goals in the opener, the Big Ten teams held them to a combined 11 goals in their next two contests.
Loyola's Adam Poitras was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List. A First Team All-Patriot League selection last year, the midfielder had 34 goals last season and has six thus far this season. He is joined on the offensive end by Matthew Minicus (seven goals) and Evan James (six goals). Loyola also features graduate student starting attackman Joey Kamish, the younger brother of Rutgers' alumn and All-American short-stick midfielder, Brennan Kamish.
Luke Staudt was named the Patriot League Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year. An All-American last season, Staudt holds a .564 save percentage this year. Graduate student Mustang Sally, a short-stick defensive midfielder, was also named preseason all-league alongside James and Minicus.
This will be the 15
th meeting between the two schools, with the Greyhounds holding a 11-3 advantage. Rutgers has won back-to-back seasons in the series. In 2022, the Scarlet Knights' last trip to Baltimore,
Ross Scott had four goals to lead RU to a 13-12 win. Last season at home, the No. 13 Scarlet Knights knocked off No. 5 Loyola, 10-6, with
Shane Knobloch recording seven points (three goals, four assists) in the game. This will be the fifth time that this matchup has been played since 2019
- Rutgers third straight win over Loyola
- Second straight season starting the year 3-1
- Rutgers would improve to 18-3 in non-conference play over the past three years, and 7-2 on the road in that span.
Rutgers will return home for its next three games. The Scarlet Knights will prepare to host Hofstra (Saturday, March 2), Detroit Mercy (Tuesday, March 5) and Princeton (Sunday, March 10).
