No. 9 Rutgers men's lax falls to No. 6 Johns Hopkins, 13-12

PISCATAWAY -- The No. 9-ranked Rutgers men’s lacrosse team fell in heartbreaking fashion to No. 6 Johns Hopkins, 13-12, in the Big Ten opener for both teams Sunday night at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway.

Rutgers (7-3, 0-1) had won 19 of its last 20 home games including nine against ranked teams and six versus conference foes.

Johns Hopkins’ Kyle Marr netted the game-winning goal with 14 seconds left.

The Scarlet Knights held a healthy two or three-goal lead for most of the game, but scored just two goals in the game’s final 19:48 seconds. Meanwhile, Hopkins (7-2, 1-0) went on a four-goal run to take a 10-9 lead with 14:50 remaining. Rutgers’ Jules Heningburg, who tallied four goals on the night, tied the game at 10-10 with 13:14 left.

Hopkins would then take a two score lead at the 7:49 mark, but Rutgers responded with two straight scores of its own. Long-stick midfielder scored his first goal of the season in transition after picking up a ground ball to make it 12-11. Then, with a man advantage, Tommy Coyne found the back of the net with 3:05 left to knot the score back up at 12-12.

Rutgers had a shot to take a the lead, but Blue Jays goalie Brock Turnbaugh, who made nine saves, made a tough stop with about 2:00 to go. Hopkins would then eat up the clock, call a timeout with 1:05 left, and eventually, Marr would net the deciding goal.

The Scarlet Knights won the ensuing faceoff, but couldn't get one last shot on goal off before time expired.

"I thought we played hard all night long," head coach Brian Brecht said according to ScarletKnights.com. "I thought we prepared well. Our coaching staff did a great job getting the guys ready to play a top-10 game.

"It's a sixty minute game. It's a game of runs. I thought we couldn't capitalized on a bit of a run we were starting ourselves to pull away. You have to every minute of that sixty minute game. Hopkins probably made one or two more plays than we do, and that's the difference."

Another key moment happened in the game at 9:15 mark in the third. Cole Williams scored for Hopkins to cut its deficit to 7-5, but he appeared to not have gotten the shot off in time as the shot clock hit zero. The goal stood.

Heningburg however would score less than two minutes later, but the damage had already been done. That allowed goal ultimately proved to be the deciding factor in the contest as Hopkins won by one.

Williams ended up with a game-high six points for Hopkins. Shack Stanwick had five as did Heningburg. Kieren Mullins finished with four. Heningburg now has 29 goals and 22 assists in 10 games. His 186 points and 109 career goals is good for Top-10 all-time in Rutgers history.

Rutgers goalie Max Edelmann made 10 saves.

A win tonight would have helped Rutgers' and Brecht's chances at making both then Big Ten Conferences and NCAA Tournaments.