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First place Rutgers Men's Lacrosse preps for No. 5 Terps

UPDATE: Honors for players & First place in the conference will be on the line this Saturday afternoon.

By rvc73
rvc73

Five weeks ago, we posted on the men's lacrosse team.  At that point, the team was 4-0 and we were saying, this was fun.  The team was ranked 16 in the coaches poll.  Yeah, it was fun.

And it is again, as the No. 16 Knights picked up their second Big Ten win on Sunday, topping Michigan (3-6, 0-2) by a 13-6 count at High Point Solutions Stadium in front of 2,144 fans.  RU improved to 9-2, 2-0 in conference.

It sets up a huge game this weekend in College Park, as Rutgers takes on No. 5 Maryland (8-2, 2-0) at Byrd Stadium.  The two squads are currently tied for first place in the conference.  The Terps are coming off a 11-10 road win at Penn State.

Against the Wolverines, Jules Heningburg led the team with a career-high five goals and Scott Bieda had a six-point day with two goals and four assists.

"I thought our guys did a great job finishing the game in the fourth quarter," head coach Brian Brecht said. "That attack unit has been working very well. The chemistry and the way they share the ball has been great. Scott Bieda and Adam Charalambides get a lot of the attention, but Jules Heningburg has been a big part of that unit and had a great game with five big ones for us today."

Rutgers scored five goals in the fourth to put the game on ice.  Along with two tallies from Heningburg, Mark Christiano, Christian Trasolini, and Ryan Hollingsworth scored goals in the final stanza to put the game away.  With the exception of Hollingsworth, all those players are underclassmen.

Rutgers leads the Big Ten in points scored (14.5 in conference, 13.1 overall) and points against (7.5 B1G, 8.6 overall).  The team is now 6-0 at home this season.

UPDATE: Big Ten honors

Rutgers again earned two spots on the weekly men's lacrosse honor roll. Check that here.

The Maryland Game

The opening faceoff this Saturday is at 4 pm and currently there is no TV coverage except for pay subscription BTN Plus.  Rutgers has Gametracker available to follow the action.

As far as common opponents, UMd topped Princeton, 17-5 while the Knights lost to the Tigers, 10-7.  But then JHU also beat Princeton.  The Terps topped Michigan in Ann Arbor ten days ago by an 8-7 count.  In that game, Maryland scored with 43 seconds remaining to take the win in regulation.

Big Ten Standings Conf. Pct. Overall Pct.
RUTGERS 2-0 1.000 9-2 .818
Maryland 2-0 1.000 8-2 .800
Penn State 1-1 .500 7-4 .636
Johns Hopkins 1-1 .500 6-4 .600
Ohio State 0-2 .000 5-7 .417
Michigan 0-2 .000 3-7 .300

When you win, people notice....and come out to watch

Last season, Rutgers average home attendance was 771, with the largest crowd being the 1,776 it drew against Maryland in a 9-8 loss.  Already this season, the Knights have had two 2,000-plus crowds (there were 3,653 against Hopkins) and is averaging just over 1,300 per game with one game left against Penn State on April 22.

And just because it's cool