No. 16 Rutgers men's lacrosse battles the elements, defeats Hofstra
The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team defeated Hofstra 13-8 this afternoon. It was a cold, rainy day at SHI Stadium, but the Scarlet Knights prevailed.
No. 16 Rutgers came out dominating, going up 2-0 in a matter of 5 minutes and having five shots on goal to the Pride’s one.
Cardin Stoller, coming off his second Big Ten Freshman of the Week award, made some impressive saves to begin the game, including one in the final seconds of the quarter to keep the lead for the Knights.
Heading into the second quarter, Rutgers led 4-3 behind scores from Dante Kulas, John Sidorski, Shane Knobloch and Ross Scott.
The second quarter was what separated the two teams for the rest of the game. The Knights did not allow Hofstra to score until the 1:05 mark in the second quarter, making it a 15+ minute scoring drought for the Pride.
The Knights tallied an impressive 6 goals to Hofstra’s 1 in the quarter, and the former was up 10-4 going into the locker rooms. Colin Kurdyla, Knobloch and Scott led the way for the Rutgers attack, each scoring 2 goals.
The second half started the exact same way as the first, with a Kulas goal assisted by Scott.
To follow up Kulas’ goal, Kurdyla netted another goal to give him a hat trick just 5 minutes into the second half. Tanyr Krummenacher assisted.
The Knights dominated until the 8:31 mark in the third quarter when Hofstra found the back of the net. The tides began to shift as the Pride scored twice more and cut their deficit to 12-7.
But Aimone would silence Hofstra in the final minutes of the third quarter when he scored his 2nd goal of the contest. After splitting the third quarter 3-3, Rutgers held a 13-7 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Pride started the scoring quickly in the fourth with a goal fresh off the quarter-opening faceoff. To this point, Hofstra was dominating faceoffs, winning 15 of 22.
That goal wound up being the last of the day for either team as the defenses tightened up down the stretch, and the Knights picked up the win.
Aside from a strong first half offensively, it was Stoller and the defense who particularly came through for Rutgers, similar to last week’s game against Loyola Maryland.
Head coach Brian Brecht was pleased with Stoller’s performance between the pipes.
“It starts with Cardin Stoller,” Brecht said. “He was seeing the ball well in practice, I mentioned that to him on Thursday… I thought he did a great job for us today, he made some great saves and really saw the ball well.”
Stoller finished with 11 saves.
Brecht is also seeing improvements from his defenders in front of Stoller.
“Defensively, it’s still a work in progress,” Brecht said. “I think we’re starting to gel, and guys are starting to step up and understand their roles and responsibilities.
Offensively, Kurdyla’s hat trick led the way.
“He’s (Kurdyla) doing a great job for us. He’s on the first-group midfield for a reason,” Brecht said. “He’s very talented, he’s growing… Colin’s an athletic young man. He has a good skill set. We needed those three goals today.”
The Knights now get right back to action at SHI Stadium on Tuesday against Detroit Mercy.
“We’ve got to take care of ourselves, we’ve got to play Rutgers Lacrosse for 60 minutes,” Brecht said. “Enjoy the day off tomorrow, relax, and then quick turnaround on Monday to understand Detroit Mercy.