No. 17 Rutgers men's lacrosse rolls over Loyola in road win
The Rutgers men's lacrosse team earned a dominant 13-5 victory over Loyola Maryland on Saturday. The Scarlet Knights (3-1, 0-0) played lockdown defense and limited the Greyhounds (1-3, 0-0) from getting anything going offensively.
Here are three takeaways from No. 17 Rutgers' road win.
Defense clamps down
The Knights controlled the game from start to finish and never allowed Loyola to lead.
After approximately 10 minutes of play, Rutgers got out to a 3-0 lead. Evan James would score his 7th goal of the season, but the Knights would respond with 2 more goals to take a 5-1 lead after the opening quarter concluded.
Junior attacker Dante Kulas netted 2 quick goals to begin the second quarter. Once again, the Greyhounds would only score 1 goal in the quarter, and Rutgers would fire back with 2 more goals of its own to extend its advantage. Loyola would not score again until the third quarter, starting a scoring drought that lasted more than 18 minutes.
The Knights then scored 4 straight goals in the third quarter to own a 13-2 lead, their largest of the afternoon. The Greyhounds were completely out of sorts, struggling on both sides of the ball.
Loyola scored the last 3 goals of the game, but it was too little too late as Rutgers ultimately claimed the victory.
Although the Greyhounds attempted 37 shots, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Cardin Stoller made an immense impact in the contest as he recorded a career-high 15 saves. Head coach Brian Brecht took out Stoller in the team's loss to Army last week, but Stoller was able to bounce back and impress between the pipes this weekend.
Hat tricks galore
Kulas and senior midfielders Shane Knobloch and Jack Aimone all had hat tricks, while graduate student attacker Ross Scott netted 2 goals and dished out two assists. Graduate student attacker Tanyr Krummenacher and freshman midfielder Colin Kurdyla also scored 1 goal each.
The Knights attempted a season-high 46 shots and forced Loyola's Luke Staudt and Max Watkinson into a combined total of 14 saves.
Faceoff dominance
Unlike last week's loss against the Black Knights (3-0, 0-0), Rutgers had the advantage on the faceoff on Saturday.
Graduate student faceoffs Cole Brams and Matt Soutar won 12 and three of their faceoff attempts, respectively. The Knights were able to win possession and remain sharp on the ball, as they only had 11 turnovers, a season-low.
Rutgers will look to start another winning streak when it returns to SHI Stadium on Busch campus to do battle with Hofstra. The game will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday and will be broadcast on Big Ten Plus and 88.7 WRSU-FM.
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