Rutgers men’s lacrosse looks for win against Ohio State
The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team will look to build off an opening day win over Penn State when the team heads to Columbus to face No. 6 Ohio State.
The Buckeyes (1-0, 1-0) got off to a hot start last week, taking down Johns Hopkins 14-8 at Homewood Field. Ohio State had a high-powered offense. The Buckeyes' Tre Leclaire led the way with 4 goals, followed by hat tricks from Griffin Hughes and Jack Meyers.
With a plethora of scoring options at Ohio State’s disposal, the Scarlet Knights (1-0, 0-0) will need to play tough defense and limit scoring opportunities whenever they can. Fortunately for Rutgers, the team's win over the Nittany Lions (0-1, 0-1) saw plenty in the way of tough defense, including an 8-2 advantage in clears and holding Mac O’Keefe to just one goal.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Knights have the personnel to compete with the likes of the Buckeyes. In addition to the usual scoring force in graduate student attacker Adam Charalambides and fifth-year senior attacker Kieran Mullins, graduate student midfielder Connor Kirst has made a name for himself so far on the Banks, following his 3-goal and four-assist outing against Penn State.
The Rutgers offense faces a tough test in Ohio State. In their win over the Blue Jays (0-1, 0-1), the Buckeyes dominated the ground ball matchup by a 33-26 margin and allowed just 8 goals on 32 shots.
Skylar Wahlund had 11 saves in his Ohio State debut. In addition, just like O’Keefe, Joey Epstein was held to just 1 goal in the entire game.
Given the sheer amount of talent on both sides of the ball, a big part of this game could come down to who wins the faceoff battle. In his debut, Knights faceoff specialist sophomore Jonathan Dugenio went 11 of 23 against the Nittany Lions, nearly going even against Gerard Arceri, one of the most efficient faceoff specialists in the country.
Faceoffs were a team effort for the Buckeyes, who finished 12-16 against Johns Hopkins. Ohio State's Ryan Terefenko led the way with a 5-9 outing in his faceoff debut. Sam Faber went 4-8, and James Hogan went 3-7.
It may only be the second week of the season, but in a 10-game slate, each win is critical in the race to the NCAA Tournament, especially when 5 of the Big Ten’s 6 teams are either in the top 20 or, in the case of the Blue Jays, receiving votes. A win over the Buckeyes on Saturday would further boost Rutgers, both in the polls and in the tournament picture.
For updates on the Rutgers men’s lacrosse team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
