No. 18 Rutgers lacrosse falls to No. 11 Johns Hopkins in Big Ten opener
The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team fell to Johns Hopkins Sunday afternoon 13-8. The Scarlet Knights (6-3, 0-1) made a late-game push after going down big early, but ultimately the Blue Jays (6-3, 1-0) prevailed behind a strong fourth quarter.
It was an electric start to the game, as No. 11 Johns Hopkins began the scoring just two minutes in. No. 18 Rutgers responded with 2 goals of its own before the Blue Jays evened things up at 2-2. Shane Knobloch and Jack Aimone scored for the Knights.
From there, Rutgers went on a near-23-minute scoring drought and Johns Hopkins opened up a sizable lead, scoring 6 goals in that period and taking a 7-2 lead.
The Knights finally got back on the board when Dante Kulas scored 2 goals to close out the half, with the latter coming in the final seconds just before halftime.
At the break, each team had 12 shots on goal, and the Blue Jays led 7-4.
The second half started slow. Eventually, Degnon scored a goal five minutes in, giving him a hat trick and extending the Johns Hopkins lead to 4 goals.
Rutgers responded moments later, though, with Knobloch tallying his 2nd goal and bringing the Knights’ deficit to 8-5.
After a bit of a stalemate, Aimone fired in his 2nd goal of the contest. Colin Kurdyla followed with his 1st, and Rutgers trimmed its deficit to just 1 goal. After trailing 7-2, the Knights had scored 5 of the game’s next 6 goals.
The third quarter finished 8-7 in advantage of the Blue Jays. With Rutgers on a 5-1 scoring run dating back to the end of the first half, the home crowd at SHI Stadium was amped up heading into the final quarter.
Johns Hopkins would silence that crowd to start the fourth quarter, though, as the Blue Jays scored just two minutes in off the stick of Russell Melendez.
That was not the end of the scoring for Johns Hopkins, as Melendez scored once more, and Degnon followed with a goal of his own. After the Knights had stolen all the momentum heading into the fourth, the Blue Jays regained it in the blink of an eye and led 11-7.
Neither team scored for some time after the Degnon goal, and with five minutes left, Rutgers’ hopes were dwindling.
With 4:16 to go, Johns Hopkins put the nail in the coffin with its 4th straight goal while the Knights were still scoreless in the quarter.
The game finished at 13-8 in advantage of the Blue Jays.
Knobloch recorded a hat trick.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Rutgers continues its conference play next week with another home game against Ohio State before embarking on a two-game road trip.
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