Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse: Scarlet Knights Smoked by Stony Brook

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights men’s lacrosse team were downed by the Stony Brook Sea Wolves in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated at High Point Solutions Stadium.   The loss sent the reeling Knights to a record of 2-5, and was RU’s third straight loss; all at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Rutgers was looking to build off the positive momentum it had garnered after what was a hard-fought game with the Black Knights of Army who came into last week’s contest ranked #9 in the nation.

Rutgers seemed to be doing just that as it got off to a fast 3-0 start against Stony Brook.

Within the game’s first 6 minutes, Rutgers’ Christian Trasolini, the Knights’ lone bright spot, struck for two of what would eventually be four goals he’d score on the afternoon.  RU’s Jeff George added the third and RU seemed to be on its way to victory on Sunday afternoon.

However, the Sea Wolves would storm back as Mike Rooney would find the net twice within a minute and a half his second coming at the 5:32 mark on the first period.

RU’s Jake Anderson, who was looking to build off of his second half performance against the Army Black Knights came up with a huge save of a point blank shot with just over two minutes to go in the first quarter.  However, the Wolves kept possession and were able to complete the comeback when Chris Hughes found the net to knot the game at three.

From there, the onslaught was on for the team from Long Island.

Stony Brook would score 7 of the next 9 goals and never looked back on its way to victory.

Matt Schultz broke the 3-3 deadlock when he took Jeff Reh’s pass and raced through the disorganized Rutgers’ defense on a transition break of an RU turnover, one of Rutgers’ staggering 15 turnovers on the day.

The difference in the game seemed to be in offensive execution where Stony Brook’s offense was efficient, while Rutgers often looked sloppy in possession, turning the ball over or firing a shot that was easily saved by Stony Brook’s Hayden Johnstone.

Rutgers’ Ryan Anderson registered just 4 saves which means the Knights have question marks in goal again.  While a lot of the Sea Wolves’ goals were off of perfectly executed passes and shots, it was disheartening that Anderson allowed 12 goals (the 13^th was into an empty net) on just 28 shots; 16 of which were on-frame.

The Knights in contrast took 34 shots in the contest, and only were able to put 9 behind Johnstone on the day.

The Sea Wolves attack was paced by Mike Rooney who netted his third goal of the game at 11:21 of the third period when he spun away from the RU defense and fired home to give his team a commanding 7-4 lead.

His fourth goal was a walkout from behind Rutgers’ cage where he found himself unmarked and fired one into the twine to give the Sea Wolves a five-goal advantage at 11-6.  Rooney capped the scoring by firing from 20 yards out into an empty net off a restart with 38 seconds to go in the game after a frantic RU rally brought the Knights within 3 goals.

Another bright spot for Rutgers was Scott Bieda who was his usual productive self in a facilitating role assisting on four of Rutgers’ 9 goals on the day.

However, this latest loss derails any of the progress that Rutgers had gained out of the Army game and left Knights fans wondering where does this team go from here?

The short answer to that question is a trip to the University of Delaware on Saturday where hopefully some time away from home will do this team some good.

Delaware is a team with a 3-4 record so the Knights shouldn’t be outclassed on the field.