No. 6 Rutgers men’s lacrosse suffered a damaging loss on the road to No. 19 Ohio State (5-4; 0-1) on Sunday night. Dropping an 11-7 decision in the Big Ten opener significantly reduces the margin for error for the Scarlet Knights the rest of the way. RU is now 7-2 overall and saw its five game winning streak come to an end.
In front of a sold out crowd, it was a 2-2 game midway through the first period before the Buckeyes scored five straight goals before halftime. Rutgers battled back after being held scoreless for more than 20 minutes. They cut the deficit to 8-5 midway through the third period, but that was the closest they came before losing by four goals. It was OSU’s first win over RU since 2018 and just the third time they’ve won in the 17 game series.
Rutgers held many statistical advantages in the game, but simply were unable to score when opportunities were present. RU outshot the Buckeyes 43-37 and held a 24-18 shots on goal advantage. They committed just 10 turnovers and forced 14 while being a perfect 16 of 16 on clears. Even with face-offs, the Scarlet Knights won 14 of 21 attempts. It came down to executing near the net. Credit to OSU goalkeeper Skylar Wahlund who made 17 saves in the win.
Noah Daniels and Eric Civetti each had a pair of goals to lead Rutgers. In addition, Shane Knobloch, Dante Kulas and Jack Aimone each scored once. All-American Ross Scott was unable to score on eight shot attempts. Fellow attacker Brian Cameron, who is tied with Scott for second on the team with 29 points, missed his second straight game due to injury. Jonathan Dugenio played well in winning 14 of 20 face-off attempts and scooping 11 ground balls. Goalkeeper Kyle Mullen made 7 saves in defeat.
With three conference foes ranked in the top ten nationally still on the schedule, Rutgers will need to bounce back quickly. They travel to face No. 8 Johns Hopkins on Saturday, April 1. The game will air live on ESPNU at 3:00 p.m. ET. The Blue Jays won its Big Ten opener against Michigan 15-11.
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pj43
March 28, 2023 at 4:27 am
I looked forward to seeing Rutgers on BTN to get my first look at the #6 ranked team in its first Big Ten game. What a disappointment to see OSU dominate play in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. While I have to credit OSU’s defensive effort, it just seemed to me that RU failed to match OSU’s intensity. I don’t know a lot about lacrosse so it would interesting to get the HC’s view of the game. All I know is that RU didn’t pass the eye test and seems to ranked too high at this point in the season. If they repeat that performance against Johns Hopkins, they’ll be 0-2 out of the gate in the Big Ten.