#5 Rutgers edges #19 Loyola 13-12

On a cloudy, cool day in Baltimore, the Scarlet Knights needed big games from Ross Scott and Shane Knobloch to pull out the victory against the Greyhounds. Scott tallied 4 goals and Knobloch 3, along with 2 each by Mitch Bartolo and Ronan Jacoby. Rutgers improved to a nation-leading 5-0 on the young season with their 2nd consecutive ranked victory and first ever win at Loyola. The Knights had last defeated Loyola in 2007, a home victory.

The Greyhounds held leads of 2-0 and 4-2 in the 1st quarter but the Knights battled back each time, with Bartolo scoring with a little over a minute left to even things up at 4 apiece heading into the 2nd quarter.

Ryan Gallagher gave RU its first lead at the 12 minute mark of the 2nd. The Greyhounds would then score the next 3 goals over 9 minutes before Bartolo scored with under 3 minutes left to pull the Knights within 1 at halftime, trailing 7-6.

Jacoby scored two minutes into the 3rd to bring the Knights even at 7 apiece. The teams traded goals before the Greyhounds went on another run, scoring 3 goals to go up 11-8 halfway through the 3d quarter. Rutgers then went on a tear, scoring the final 4 goals of the period, including two goals by Scott 40 seconds apart, the 2nd one putting the Knights up 12-11 with 30 ticks left in the quarter.

Less than a minute into the 4th, Scott continued his hot play, tallying his fourth goal to give RU it’s first 2-goal lead of the match. The teams would go nearly 10 minutes before Loyola ending the drought, pulling within a goal at 13-12 Colin Kirst made a save 30 seconds later to preserve the lead and that’s how the scoring would end.

Midfielder Adam Poitras had a big game for the Greyhounds with 4 goals and attack-man Keven Lindley added 3. Joey Kamish, younger brother of RU’s Brennan, added 3 assists for the Greyhounds.

My Final Thoughts

As the livestream for this game was cancelled, I was not able to watch it live or via replay so I’m going off the stat sheets.

• Both teams were a combined 0-5 on man-up situations, with RU killing 3 penalties successfully.
• Dugenio was 13-28 and Stephan 0-1 on face-offs, which is not a winning formula typically against ranked teams on the road.
• RU hunkered down late, going 7 of 7 on 4th quarter clears and Kirst saving four in the final period (10 for the game)

Next Up

The Knights head to Long Island to take on Stony Brook next Saturday, their 2nd of 3 consecutive road games. The Seawolves are 3-0 and just routed St. Johns 17-10 yesterday.