PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 17/18 Rutgers men's lacrosse will begin Big Ten Conference play this weekend. The Scarlet Knights are home for their first two Big Ten games this season and open the league slate by welcoming in No. 13/11 Johns Hopkins. The game, a 4:30 p.m. first face off, will be nationally televised by Big Ten Network, with Pete Medhurst and Mark Dixon on the call.
Rutgers has received great national television exposure from the Big Ten Network and various television deals with the Big Ten Conference. This will be the 16
th consecutive game where RU has faced another Big Ten opponent that the game will be nationally televised. Overall, Rutgers has had 50 national television broadcasts in the first nine seasons of play in the Big Ten Conference.
Rutgers got a great home crowd for its last home game, with 3,482 fans watching RU face Princeton. Three different matchups against Johns Hopkins in the previous five years have seen over 3,000 fans at SHI Stadium. This Sunday's game will be Youth Lacrosse Day. There will be 'Block R' shirts and discounted tickets for kids, postgame autographs and additional giveaways.
The Scarlet Knights enter Big Ten play after posting 6-2 record in the non-conference portion of the schedule and are now 21-4 in non-conference games over the past three seasons. RU downed Lehigh, Stony Brook, Loyola, Hofstra, Detroit Mercy and UMass, with losses to No. 6/7 Army and No. 14/15 Princeton.
Rutgers enters the week off of a thrilling, 10-9 victory over UMass, in a neutral site game held on Long Island.
Shane Knobloch had three goals, including the game-winner. Long-stick midfielder
Ryan Splaine led the team with six ground balls and two caused turnovers.
Cardin Stoller was the National Player of the Week and the Big Ten Specialist and Freshman of the Week after making 19 saves in the win at UMass, which included the game-sealing stop at the final horn. Stoller is second in the Big Ten in both save percentage (56.0%) and saves per game (11.75), in addition to a 10.33 goals-against-average.
Rutgers ranks fourth nationally in turnovers (13.62) and eight in both man-up offense (50%) and man-down defense (76.5%).
Shane Knobloch, who leads the team with four man-up goals, has the 13
th longest goal-scoring streak in the nation at 16 games (JHU's Garrett Degnon has the longest at 37 games).
Ross Scott holds the team lead in points (29) and assists (16).
Shane Knobloch has the team-lead with 19 goals, with
Jack Aimone (15),
Ross Scott (13) and
Colin Kurdyla (12) joining him in double-figure goal totals.
Cole Brams is at 55.4% on faceoffs (72-of-130), while
Matt Soutar is at 59.7% (40-of-67). Defensively,
Tommy Mendyke leads RU with eight caused turnovers.
Rutgers begins its 10
th season in the Big Ten Conference with this matchup. Over the first nine seasons, RU has a 23-22 league record. Over the last three seasons, RU has a 13-7 record against Big Ten teams.
Johns Hopkins enters the matchup with a 5-3 record, looking to snap a two-game losing streak following one-goal losses to Navy (overtime) and Syracuse. The Blue Jays, who have been ranked as high as No. 2 in the Media Poll this year, had a five-game winning streak that saw victories over Towson, Georgetown, Loyola, North Carolina and Virginia, with three of those wins on the road. JHU is 8-2 on the road in the past two seasons, with a 17-9 record overall in that span.
The Blue Jays are buoyed by the starting attack line of Jacob Angelus (13 goals, 19 assists), Garrett Degnon (24 goals) and Russell Melendez (seven goals, six assists). Matt Collison (12 goals) and Hunter Chauvette (11 goals) have supplemented that attack.
In the cage, Chayse Ireland has a 53.7 save percentage and 10.17 goals-against average. JHU primarily uses Logan Callahan (71-of-137, 51.8%) on faceoffs. Ireland, Melendez and Collison were preseason All-Americans, joined by defenseman Scott Smith (team-high nine caused turnovers) and SSDM Brett Martin (12 ground balls, three caused turnovers).
A win over No. 13/11 Johns Hopkins would represent…
- First ranked win this season in three tries.
- 7-2 record (or better) through nine games for the fourth straight season.
- 17-3 home record over the past three seasons.
- 14-7 record in Big Ten games since 2021.
- Fourth win in the last six games with Johns Hopkins.
- 10th all-time win over Johns Hopkins.
- Fourth win over a ranked Johns Hopkins team since 2016.
Ross Scott (166 career points) needs seven points to tie Brody Bush for 14
th all-time at RU, and eight points to tie Bob Andrews for 13
th.
Rutgers is 9-36 all-time against Johns Hopkins, in a series that dates back to 1920. The two schools joined the Big Ten in 2015, and since then, the series is 6-5 in favor of JHU. RU is 3-2 in the last five meetings since 2021. Last season, RU fell to JHU 16-12 in a matchup of top-ten teams at Homewood Field. Since RU and Johns Hopkins became conference foes in 2015, there have been four matchups between the two schools. RU is 3-1 versus the Blue Jays in those home contests, the lone loss coming by one goal, which JHU scored with 14 seconds to play. The three victories came by an average margin of victory of six goals, and all three being five-plus goal victories (16-9, 17-11, 12-7).
Rutgers remains at home for its next Big Ten game. The Scarlet Knights host Ohio State on Saturday, March 30, at 4:30 p.m. That game will be streamed on B1G+.
