5/5/2022 other sports Edit

No. 3/4 Rutgers Men's Lax tops No. 12/11 Ohio State in B1G Tourney semis

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

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Second-seeded Rutgers Men's Lacrosse, ranked No. 3 in the USILA Coaches Poll and No. 4 by Inside Lacrosse, defeated third-seeded and No. 12/11 Ohio State, 12-10, in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on Thursday at Maryland.

With the win, the Scarlet Knights (13-2) will face top-seeded and No. 1 Maryland in the championship game on Saturday night at 8:00 p.m.

Down 8-5 with 10:05 to go in the third quarter, Rutgers went on a 6-0 run to take a 11-8 lead. Mitch Bartolo scored four goals in the stretch. Ross Scott and Shane Knobloch had the others.

Ohio State, which led 7-4 at halftime, was held to just one goal in the third quarter. The second goal came with a mere 20 seconds remaining.

The Buckeyes ended the Scarlet Knights run with a goal with 9:17 to go to make it 11-9.

The next goal wouldn't be scored until the 2:03 mark as Scott for Rutgers got inside after a timeout and found the back of the cage. Colin Kirst made a big save with 1:36 left.

That pretty much put the game on ice.

"I'm so happy and proud of our guys to get this win and have a chance to play in the Big Ten championship game," Rutgers head coach Brian Brecht said. "Our guys kept grinding and chipping away. We showed up to work on Monday and had a great week of practice, travelled well down to Maryland. The more we focus on what we're good at, the more success we're going to have, and we've been playing pretty good lacrosse this year.

Rutgers celebrates scoring a goal in the second half against Ohio State (Rutgers Athletics)

Ohio State scored a goal to make it 12-10 with 20 seconds to go, and then the Buckeyes won the faceoff. After a timeout, good defense forced a wide shot. On the reset, a Ohio State shot attempt went side. Time ran out shortly after.

For the game, Rutgers outshot Ohio State 47-35 overall and 33-22 on shots on goal. Rutgers also had 29 ground balls to 25 for the Buckeyes. Each team went 13-for-26 on faceoffs and caused two turnovers.

Skylar Wahlund recorded 21 saves between the pipes while Kirst made 12. Jackson Reid guided the Buckeyes with five goals.

Bartolo finished with four goals for the Scarlet Knights. Ross netted three goals on the night with an assist. Ronan Jacoby also finished with three goals for Rutgers while Brian Cameron had a goal and an assist and Knobloch had a goal and three assists.

Maryland beat Rutgers back on April 10 in College Park, 17-9.

"We knew that if we could come back out in the second half and move the ball well and trust in our offensive guys, we would have success," Bartolo said. "We always have six dangerous guys on the field. We have a lot of trust in that group. It comes down to selflessness for all the players out there, just play it as they come."