Men's Lacrosse | 4/26/2019 7:01:00 PM
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The
Robert Morris men's lacrosse team concludes its 15th NCAA Division I regular season Saturday, when it welcomes the Statesmen of Hobart College to Joe Walton Stadium for its 2019 Senior Day celebration. The opening faceoff for the Northeast Conference game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EDT, and admission is free, as is the livestream on NEC Front Row.
Robert Morris (6-7, 3-2) vs. (RV)/(RV) Hobart (10-3, 4-1)
Apr. 27 (1:00 p.m.) - LIVE STREAM | LIVE STATS
After a 13-5 finish and first-ever Northeast Conference Tournament title in 2018, the Colonials, for the first time, were unanimously picked as the conference front-runner in the annual NEC Preseason Coaches' Poll. Robert Morris had not been picked to finish first since 2011, the first official year for the NEC in D-I men's lacrosse, when it garnered four of six first-place votes.
RMU is coming off its fifth consecutive win, a 20-16 shootout at Bryant last Saturday keyed by a 7-0 run in the first half after the Bulldogs had taken an early 5-1 lead. The victory tied the winning streak for the Colonials' second-longest under head coach
Andrew McMinn (last: Feb. 24-Mar. 24, 2018), and it kept Robert Morris mathematically alive for the regular-season crown and postseason play.
Alex Heger and
Jack Toomb, along with co-captains
Tyson Gibson,
Matt Schmidt,
Will Ewing and
Mike Eveland, will join
Michael Clark,
Shane Majewski,
Dylan Sidoriak,
Daniel Smith and
Eddie Smith to comprise the 11 Class of '19 players who will be honored before the start of Saturday's contest. Leading the Colonials to a sixth straight win would give that class four NEC Tournament berths in as many years.
If RMU, St. Joseph's and Wagner all prevail in NEC action Saturday, the Colonials would claim their first regular-season championship and NEC Tournament hosting rights since 2012, McMinn's first year at the helm.
In a game that, like its 18-17 Senior Day loss to Hobart Apr. 29, 2017, featured wild momentum swings, Robert Morris defeated Hobart 10-9 Apr. 7, 2018, the teams' last meeting. RMU built an early 5-0 lead before Schmidt cemented the win with his goal 1:07 into overtime. Gibson led the Colonials with four points (2 G, 2 A).
SCOUTING HOBART
The Statesmen earned an 11-8 Northeast Conference win over Mount St. Mary's on Boswell Field at Urick Stadium to move into a tie for first place in the league standings. Hobart snapped the Mountaineers' five-game winning streak and has all but guaranteed a berth in the NEC Tournament as a result (see pg. 2), though it still needs one more win Saturday to put the tournament in Geneva, New York.
On the Statesmen's Senior Day, seniors Chris Aslanian and Matthew Pedicine led the way for Hobart. Aslanian produced a game-high six points on five goals and an assist. Pedicine won 13 of 23 faceoffs and scooped up a game-high nine ground balls. He raised his career total to 290 ground balls, breaking Bobby Dattilo's career record (Division I era).
Aslanian, Hobart's all-time leading D-I scorer, was named the NEC Player of the Week for Week 11. The attackman has 21 goals and a conference-high 31 assists for 52 points, and he scored twice in Hobart's last meeting with RMU, including a late fourth-quarter equalizer. Pedicine, a top-15 FOGO nationally, went 17-for-23 (.739) with 12 GB's at Urick Stadium against the Colonials last spring.
MUSKET SHOTS
A Senior Moment
The 11 Robert Morris seniors on the 2019 squad have combined for 218 goals, 379 points, 779 ground balls and 225 caused turnovers entering their final regular-season home game Saturday. They have combined for a 35-27 overall record with the program, including a 15-8 mark in NEC play.
Alex Heger has been in goal for 30 of those total wins, the most of any goalkeeper in Colonials history.
To The Victorian Go The Spoils
Brad McCulley was named the RMU Athletics Male Student-Athlete of the Week for his career-high five goals off the bench in a 20-16 NEC win at Bryant last Saturday, including the game-winner with 10:26 left. The Colonials beat the Bulldogs in Smithfield, Rhode Island for the first time since Apr. 23, 2011.
Slingin' In The Rain
Ryan Smith was named a Week 11 NEC Prime Performer for earning his eighth hat trick of the season over a span of 2:21 late in the first quarter and co-leading all players with six points.
Tyson Gibson also received that recognition after matching his six points with a goal and five assists. RMU finished with a season-high 36 points, its most since the Senior Day matchup with Hobart in 2017, and its 20-goal output, the tenth in team lore, was its biggest since a 22-6 win versus Wagner Mar. 30, 2013.
Bucky Lives!
With his career-high fifth assist on
Corson Kealey's NEC-leading 40th goal Apr. 20,
Tyson Gibson tied Kyle Buchanan for the most career assists in Robert Morris history, with 76. He is tied for second in the NEC with 2.08 assists per game and leads all with a 3.40 clip in conference play. Eight different players amassed a season-high 16 helpers at Bryant for RMU, which ranks third in D-I with 9.23 per game.
Caps Four Sale
A Colonial has recorded a hat trick in 22 of the past 23 games. At Bryant last Saturday, McCulley earned his first as a collegian with 11:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, which became the fourth RMU hat trick of the day after
Corson Kealey and
Matt Schmidt had joined Smith in breaking out the chapeaus. Robert Morris is the tenth D-I team this year to have four different players get HT's in a single game.
Heggs 'N 'At
Alex Heger was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List for the second straight year Mar. 1, one of two NEC players and five goalies in all of Division I who made that cut. Heger averages 12.54 saves per game, ranking 17th in the NCAA and second in the conference, and his 637 career stops put him in the top four among active D-I collegians. On Apr. 14, at the 25th RMU Athletics All-Sports Awards Banquet, he was named the Outstanding Male Senior for the 2018-19 year.
Canadian Bakin'
RMU has three Canadians among the NEC's top ten in points per game. Its 2019 roster, with 15 Canucks in all, has both the most Canadians and international players in both the NEC and NCAA. Smith and Gibson, who registered a game-high seven points last time he faced Hobart at Joe Walton Stadium, are tied for fourth at 3.85 per game, and Kealey is tied for seventh at 3.69. Kealey paces the NEC at 3.08 goals per game (t-12th, NCAA), while Smith is fifth at 2.46 and Gibson ninth at 1.77.
An EMO Band
The Colonials have scored on ten of their last 12 extra-man opportunities. The third-quarter strike by McCulley at No. 17 Lehigh tied him with
Matt Schmidt, the RMU leader, at five EMO markers apiece in 2019, three off the Division I pace. Robert Morris, approaching Week 12, leads both the NEC and the NCAA with its .581 conversion rate in man-up situations.
Schmidt Show
Schmidt leads active Colonials with 91 career goals, having tied Andrew Watt '08 with his hat trick last Saturday. His 18th career man-up goal Apr. 6 tied him with
Luke Laszkiewicz '16 for the third-most in RMU history. His five points at Bryant moved Schmidt into a tie with Watt and Kyle Buchanan '12 (San Diego Seals, National Lacrosse League) for eighth on the Colonials' all-time chart, with 128. Schmidt scored five times for the Colonials and finished with six points on their 2017 Senior Day versus Hobart.
"'You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Don't Take' -Wayne Gretzky" -Michael Scott
Robert Morris averages 13.77 goals per game, tying for second in the NEC and 11th nationally. It leads the conference and has climbed to 18th in the NCAA with its .307 shot percentage. In addition, RMU's average of 23.00 points per game is good for ninth in the nation and remains second in the NEC.
Ground Round
Toomb collected three ground balls at Bryant last Saturday, giving him exactly 200 for his career. He joins Mike Grosz '12 and
Chris Barney '16 as the only other Colonials in history with 200 or more, and the first defenseman with this distinction. Two other active Colonials are in the program's top ten for GB's entering Saturday:
Trey Arnold, with 173 (5th), and Heger, with 132 (8th). Robert Morris grabbed a season-high 41 ground balls against the Bulldogs last Saturday.
Blaze Of Glory
Gibson has a point in 34 of his last 35 games dating back to 2017. He now has 142 all-time, including four (2 G, 2 A) the last time he faced Hobart, leaving him sixth all-time at RMU. He padded his senior resume with a nomination for the Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®) Award, one of the premier citizenship honors in D-I athletics, and his selection by the Atlanta Blaze in the 2019 Major League Lacrosse Draft with the 41st pick of the fifth round.
Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now
Robert Morris averages 9.46 caused turnovers per game, second in the NEC and 18th in the country.
Jack Toomb has forced 18 miscues to lead the Colonials entering Saturday, needing one more to match his career high. He is averaging exactly one CT per game, as his 61 career games played are tied for the sixth-most in school history, and his 61 career caused turnovers rank fifth.
Bobby Mo To Pro
Tyson Gibson and
Alex Heger (Ohio Machine), on Mar. 9, joined
Zachary Bryant (Ohio, 2018);
Sean Meagher (Charlotte Hounds, 2015); Kiel Matisz (Hamilton Nationals, 2012); Trevor Moore (Chesapeake Bayhawks, 2011) and Patrick Smith (Ohio, 2011) as RMU's all-time MLL draftees. On Mar. 20
Jacob Ruest '15 (Colorado Mammoth, NLL), one of nine alumni to play "box lax" professionally in 2018-19, was taken by the Denver Outlaws in the MLL Supplemental Draft.
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