Box Score Moon Township, Pa. - After playing four consecutive games away from home to start the season, the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team came out of the gates slow in its home opener Saturday afternoon against Colgate and was never able to recover as the Raiders claimed a 24-14 decision at a very windy Joe Walton Stadium.
Despite the defeat, senior midfielder Mike Grosz (St. Louis, Mo. / Parkway West) had a career day for the Colonials as he broke two individual single-game school records. Grosz won 28-of-40 faceoffs that he contested on the day to singlehandedly break RMU's team record for most faceoffs won in a game. Grosz topped his own mark for individual faceoffs won as he had surpassed the 20 that he had recorded in a March 2010 game. Grosz also collected 18 ground balls on the afternoon, which shattered his own single-game school record of 12 that he had achieved once in each of the past two years.
Grosz has now won exactly 57 percent of his faceoffs for the season and also extended his career ground ball record at RMU to 175.
Senior Kiel Matisz (Stoney Creek, Ontario / Saltfleet) had arguably the best offensive performance of his career as he reset career highs in both goals (six) and points (seven). He becomes just the fifth distinct Colonial to notch at least a half dozen goals in a game and is the seventh different Colonial to post at least seven points in one contest. Matisz, who now has 13 points combined in his last two games, became the fifth Colonial to hit 125 points for his career Saturday as he registered at least four points for the seventh time in his last eight outings.
Redshirt sophomore Taylor Graves (Carlsbad, Calif. / Carlsbad) tallied his first-career hat trick and the third multi-goal game of his career.
Junior Jake Hayes (Calgary, Alberta / Central Memorial), the reigning Northeast Conference (NEC) Offensive Player of the Week, tallied two goals and an assist to collect his eighth multi-goal outing in his last 10 regular-season games.
Colgate came out of the locker room on fire as the Raiders scored each of the game's first four goals and would claim 11 of the game's 13 goals in the first quarter of action.
After getting off to a sluggish start in the opening 15 minutes, Robert Morris played quite even with Colgate over the following 45 minutes. However, even though it was matching the Raiders, the Colonials were never able to produce a sustained run that would pull them within striking distance.
Senior Kyle Buchanan (Nepean, Ontario / John McCrae) collected a trio of assists to notch at least three points in a game for the 14th time in his career as well as extend his point streak to 10 games.
Sophomore long-stick midfielder Tyler Rankel (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown West) notched two assists to grab the first multi-point game of his career.
Grosz's effort also helped RMU post 43 ground balls as a team, which ranks tied for eighth in Colonial single-game school history.
RMU will head right back to the road after its home opener for three more games away from home. The Colonials will begin the stretch next Friday, March 9, as they travel west to take on nationally-ranked Ohio State in the first of three night games on the schedule. The opening faceoff is set for 7:00 p.m.
