PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 16 Rutgers men's lacrosse will be back at SHI Stadium for its next three games, beginning the homestand this Saturday. The Scarlet Knights welcome Hofstra to town on Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest. The game will be streaming on B1G+ with Ralph Bednarczyk and Rick Mercurio on the call. Saturday is Mental Health Awareness Day.
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Rutgers has opened the season with a 3-1 record, and now hold an 18-3 record in non-conference play over the past three seasons. RU is 14-2 at home over the past three seasons and 18-3 over the past four seasons.
Last week, Rutgers' dominated Loyola for a 13-5 road win. The Scarlet Knights got hat tricks from
Dante Kulas,
Jack Aimone and
Shane Knobloch. RU raced out to a 9-2 halftime lead and the game was never in doubt.
Cardin Stoller excelled in the cage and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second time through four games. Stoller had a save percentage of 75.0%, the best for a Rutgers' goalkeeper since Colin Kirst on February 12, 2022 (76.9%), a span of 33 games. His 15 saves were the most for a RU goalkeeper in a calendar year (13 games) and the five goals were tied for fewest given up since March 2, 2019. It was just the third time over the past 65 games that RU surrendered fewer than six goals in a game.
Cole Brams was 12-of-18 on faceoffs at Loyola. He is 44-of-74 at the 'X' this year, a career-best of 59.5%, surpassing last year's 57.7% at Utah. He is at 55.1% now for his career.
Offensively, RU has three players with 80 career goals.
Ross Scott is at 96 goals in 55 games, just four shy of the century mark.
Shane Knobloch is at 80 goals and 40 assists in 49 career games, while
Tanyr Krummenacher has 89 goals and 64 assists in 41 games at Rutgers and Amherst.
Jack Aimone has 10 goals in four games, averaging 2.5 goals per game. The Ringoes, N.J. native is on his best career pace, bettering last season's 1.8 goals per game.
Dante Kulas already has six assists in four games, just two away from last year's career high of eight for the junior.
Rutgers has converted 63.6% of its man-up opportunities, fifth best in the nation.
Shane Knobloch has four man-up tallies, second most in the nation.
- Starting the season with a 4-1 or better record for the fourth straight season.
- Third straight win over Hofstra, dating to 2019.
- 19-3 in non-conference play over the past three seasons.
- 15-2 at home over the past three seasons.
Rutgers and Hofstra will be playing for the 33
rd time lifetime, with the Scarlet Knights holding a 17-15 series advantage. The first meeting between the schools came in 1954, and 30 of the 32 previous matchups came between 1954 and 1999. The series was restarted in 2019, with a 10-7 home win for RU, and then played at SHI Stadium in 2022, a 22-10 RU win. In that 2022 Scarlet Knight road win,
Ross Scott had five points (two goals, three assists) and
Shane Knobloch (two goals, one assist) and
Dante Kulas (one goal, two assists) and
Jack Aimone (two goals) also contributed.
Hofstra enters the game with a 3-2 record following a 12-10 home loss to Marist last weekend. The Pride hold wins over Wagner, St. John's and Siena, while also losing 16-8 at Navy. Hofstra had a 5-9 record last year and were 6-9 the year before that.
John Madsen paces the squad with 19 goals and 23 points. He is seventh in the nation with 3.8 goals per game. Rory Jones has posted 13 goals and 19 points.
Chase Patterson is at 62.8% at the faceoff 'X', 14
th nationally. His 10.2 ground balls per game are fourth in the nation.
In goal, Sean Henderson is the starter, with a 12.33 goals-against-average. He has 47 saves with a 44.3% save percentage.
Rutgers remains at home for the lone midweek game of the year, hosting Detroit Mercy on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Then on Sunday, March 10, RU welcomes No. 14/15 Princeton for a noon battle for the Tots Meistrell Cup.
