Rutgers MLax: That's how you finish!

In a glorious send off to its seniors, the Rutgers Men's Lacrosse team earned its first Big Ten win with a solid 17-10 victory over No. 10 Ohio State.

Senior captain Joe Nardella said, "This made for a fairytale ending."

"This is a proud moment for the program, having the nine seniors leave with something they could put their stamp on with a top-ten and Big Ten win," head coach Brian Brecht said. "I'm proud of those nine guys who put on that jersey for the past four years and have been a big part of our success."

Playing on national TV (ESPNU), the Knights used a seven goal second quarter to pull away from the ranked Buckeyes.  Senior Brian Goss and freshman Jules Heningburg each had three goals on the day, while Nardella, junior Scott Bieda and sophomore Jeff George each had two scores.

The Knights never trailed, with Heningburg and Bieda scoring the first two goaks of the game.  The best the Buckeyes could do was a 4-4 tie at the end of the first.  But, the Knights never looked back, shutting out the visitors in the second.

Ryan Hollingsworth's goal at 13:07 of the second quarter gave RU the lead for good.  In that dominating second quarter, Christian Trasolini, Bieda, Connor Murphy, and Jeff George all scored. Rutgers took an 11-4 lead into halftime. Redshirt freshman Christian Mazzone capped the day by scoring his first career goal to wrap the 17-10 win.

Rutgers outshot Ohio State 46-26. RU held a 41-33 advantage on ground balls and was 2-2 on extra man opportunities.

While the Buckeyes move on to the B1G Lacrosse Championships as the third seed, the Knights (5-10, 1-4 B1G) wrapped up their season with the victory. The crowd of 1,361 was the second largest of the season.

A public service to our friends in Columbus

Our friends at Land Grant Holy Land pointed out in an article the lack of success that Rutgers has had this season in several sports.  They went sport by sport to do so.

When it came to Men's Lacrosse, LGHL asked:

What about lacrosse? They play lacrosse pretty well in the northeast, right?

The answer is, yes.  Yes, we do play lacrosse pretty well.