No. 16 Rutgers men’s lacrosse opens season with 20-9 victory over Quinnipiac

The no. 16 Rutgers men’s lacrosse team opened the 2020 season on Saturday at SHI Stadium in impressive fashion by defeating Quinnipiac 20-9. Thirteen different Scarlet Knights scored in the victory that began with a 6-1 lead in the early ongoing and only ballooned as the game progressed. RU scored the most goals in a game since they produced 21 against NJIT in 2015.

Kieran Mullins had a tremendous performance, leading the way with 2 goals and 5 assists for a game high 7 points. Ryan Gallagher led the team with 4 goals, followed by David Sprock with 3 goals and Ross Scott, who made his college debut, scored twice. Nine other players contributed with a goal.

In goal, Cleveland State transfer Stephen Russo earned the start in his first game with the program and registered 12 saves and scooped up 5 ground balls in the win. Palmer Lloyd won 16 of 26 faceoffs and also had 5 ground balls.

Rutgers held a 58-32 advantage in shots, a 41-31 edge in ground balls, were 20-of-23 on clears, while forcing 25 turnovers from Quinnipiac.

“I thought coming out the preseason this week’s practice had a lot of energy,” head coach Brian Brecht. “I was pleased with the effort and the work our team put in. We were flying around the field, which was great to see. The defense did a good job of getting stops and we did a good job with our tempo and pushing transition.”

Rutgers (1-0) will next host St. John’s on Saturday, February 8 at 3 p.m. at SHI Stadium. It will be the first game of the season for the Red Storm, who have lost the last six meetings in a row to RU.