Men's Lacrosse | 2/28/2020 9:58:00 AM
Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team opens up the home slate of its 2020 schedule on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 11:00 a.m. when it hosts High Point. This is the only tilt at Joe Walton Stadium from the start of the season until Saturday, March 14, as a pair of road contests at Detroit Mercy (March 4) and Marquette (March 7) follow the home opener.
GAME #4
High Point Panthers (1-4, 0-0 SoCon) @ Robert Morris Colonials (1-2, 0-0 NEC)
Saturday, February 29, 2020 // 11:00 a.m. // Moon Township, Pa. – Joe Walton Stadium (3,000)
Live Video: NEC Front Row // Live Stats: RMUColonials.com
History w/ High Point
Overall: 2-3 | Home: 1-1 | Away: 1-2 | Neutral: 0-0 | Streak: L1
Last Game: March 2, 2019 – High Point, N.C. – No. 11 High Point 16, Robert Morris 15 (2OT)
Robert Morris is 2-3 all-time against High Point, having won meetings in 2017 and 2018. This is the sixth consecutive season that the Colonials and Panthers have played, as the home-and-home series debuted in 2015.
RMU nearly defeated a nationally-ranked HPU squad last March, taking the No. 11 team to double overtime before falling, 16-15.
Corson Kealey scored five goals for the visitors, and
Tyson Gibson (3g, 2a) and
Matt Schmidt (3g) both recorded hat tricks in the defeat. Schmidt's tally with 1:37 left in the fourth quarter forced an extra frame, and the second overtime marked the fifth time in program history the Colonials played in a contest that long.
Two years ago in Moon Township, RMU outscored the Panthers, 16-5, over the first three quarters en route to a 16-11 victory. Schmidt had a career afternoon, leading the hosts with eight points on four goals and four assists. Kealey added five points (1g, 4a), while Gibson provided a pair of goals and two helpers.
Alex Heger made 15 saves and allowed just eight goals in 56:22 between the pipes.
Scouting the Panthers
High Point is 1-4 in the early stages of 2020, but has played one of the toughest schedules in the nation. The Panthers, who were selected to finish second in the Southern Conference (SoCon) Preseason Coaches' Poll, have lost to No. 4 Maryland (12-23), No. 7 Duke (8-17), No. 12 Cornell (11-21), and No. 6 Virginia (15-18). Their lone win of the season came on Saturday, Feb. 15 at home against Drexel, 16-15.
Junior attackman Asher Nolting was picked to the Preseason All-America Second Team by
Inside Lacrosse and leads HPU with 21 points (7g, 14) thus far. Freshman attackman Tyler Hendrycks is the team leader in goals (8) and has 10 points overall, while redshirt freshman Devon Buckshot, senior Ben Baker, and junior Koby Russell have all provided eight points in 2020. Junior defenseman and Pittsburgh product Clayton Krol has a team-high six caused turnovers, while freshman Parker Green has started all five contests in the cage, registering a .444 save percentage and 19.68 goals against average.
The Panthers rank seventh nationally in saves (15.20) and 27th in man-up offense (.400). Because of its loaded February slate, HPU is near the bottom in opponent clear percentage (.916, 68th), scoring margin (-6.40, 68th), and scoring defense (18.80, 72nd).
Off and Running
Senior attackman
Ryan Smith began his final hurrah in an epic way, topping the RMU single-game standard for points with 10 in a 22-10 triumph at Canisius on Feb. 15. Smith's 10 points came the way of eight goals – tying the program record – and two assists, as the Colonials racked up their most goals in a season opener since 2010 (W, 24-17 at Penn State).
Smith's 10-point afternoon topped the previous nine-point efforts of
Jake Hayes and
Luke Laszkiewicz (twice), while the eight goals matched Laszkiewicz's tally on April 19, 2016 at Canisius. RMU more than doubled up the Golden Griffins in shots, 60-27, and went a perfect 19-of-19 on clear attempts.
Through three games, Smith has recorded 17 points on 11 goals and six assists. The senior moved up to seventh all-time at RMU in assists (47), eighth in points (138), and ninth in goals (88). Nationally, Smith slots 12th in points per game (5.67) and 14th in goals per game (3.67), and ranks second in the NEC in both of those categories plus assists per game (2.00).
Trey Day
Senior faceoff specialist
Trey Arnold has been strong at the X thus far, owning a .593 faceoff percentage on 54 draws. Arnold is averaging 5.33 groundballs per game and is two shy of reaching 200 for his career, which would make him the fourth player in program history to reach that milestone (
Chris Barney, Mike Grosz,
Jack Toomb).
The Peach State product collected 12 groundballs in the season opener at Canisius, which marked the second time he has matched his career high. He ranks third in the NEC in faceoff percentage and fourth in groundballs after finishing sixth in both of those categories last season.
New Format, Same Expectations
Coming off back-to-back NEC Tournament championships, Robert Morris was selected to finish on the top of the NEC West Division by receiving six of nine possible first-place votes. The conference split into two divisions with the additions of Long Island, Merrimack, and NJIT, and five teams qualify for the postseason with the fourth and fifth seeds competing in a play-in contest.
The Colonials were unanimously projected to capture the NEC crown prior to last season, and lived up to that notion in the end after punching their ticket to the league tournament on the final day of the regular season. RMU has gone 4-2 in the NEC in four straight campaigns, making the NEC Tournament in each of them.
All-NEC Returnees
RMU returns a pair of All-NEC honorees in attackmen
Ryan Smith and
Brandon Sulhoff, as well as the league's top scorer in
Corson Kealey. The trio combined to score 101 goals last season, and finished with 132 points between them.
Smith is a three-time All-NEC selection, making two Second Teams and collecting Rookie of the Year honors in 2017. He finished second in the team in goals (40) and assists (20) last season, and third in points (60), and ranked inside the top 10 of the NEC in each of those categories.
Kealey won NEC Player of the Week three times in 2019 and came a goal shy of tying the school record. The junior finished with a league-high 52 tallies and 62 points, highlighted by a pair of six-goal efforts. He enters this year with a 19-game point streak and ranks third in program history in goals per game (1.94).
Sulhoff earned All-NEC Rookie Team accolades after providing 10 points (9g, 1a) in a key reserve role. He posted a pair of two-goal efforts and scored in the Colonials' thrilling NEC Tournament semifinal win at top-seeded Mount St. Mary's.
Can We Get (Another) Encore?
RMU will lean on the leadership of eight seniors this season in hopes of joining Bryant (2012-15) as the only programs to win three consecutive NEC Tournament titles. The group of fourth-years (
Trey Arnold,
Alex Cash,
Ciaron Costello,
Brad McCulley,
Austin Popovich,
Chris Reynolds,
James Scane,
Ryan Smith) have gone 32-22 (.593) overall and 12-6 (.667) in league play in their careers, also achieving the program's single-season win mark (13, 2018) and first postseason win (2018 NCAA Tournament at Canisius).
Entering 2020 with 31 wins, only six other classes have collected more than that over a four-year span, highlighted by the 39 victories the 2012 seniors recorded. That group went 9-7 in 2009 to achieve the program's first winning season and posted a pair of 10-win campaigns in 2010 (10) and 2012 (11), the latter season ending with the Colonials' first NEC regular-season title.
New to RMU
The Colonials will look to receive production from a 17-player newcomer class consisting of 13 freshmen and four transfers. The class is represented from eight different states or Canadian provinces (California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania), with Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania featuring four newcomers each.
Entering their first seasons of collegiate lacrosse are
Trevor Barrett,
Luke Hallman,
Zach Hamilton,
Bryce Henise,
Elliot Holden,
Brandon Infante,
James Leary,
Blake Lori,
Brady Ludewig,
Matt McShea,
Torin Neal,
Liam Rosenthal, and
Ben Starkey.
Shaun Vines and
Eli Doyle arrive as juniors from Harford Community College,
Johnny Chaisson is a sophomore transfer from Howard Community College, and
Ben Savick played his first two seasons at NCAA Division II program Palm Beach Atlantic University.
From Bobby Mo to Pro
Robert Morris has the highest representation of any college or university in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) this season, with 11 former Colonials playing for 10 different teams. RMU edges out notable schools such as Ohio State (9), Syracuse (8), Drexel (6), and Canisius (6) for the honor.
Kevin Brownell (Buffalo Bandits), Kyle Buchanan (San Diego Seals),
Tyler Digby (Colorado Mammoth),
Tyson Gibson (New York Riptide), JonPatrik Kealey (Rochester Knighthawks),
Luc Magnan (Halifax Thunderbirds), Kiel Matisz (Philadelphia Wings),
James Rahe (Vancouver Warriors),
Justin Robinson (Saskatchewan Rush),
Jacob Ruest (Colorado Mammoth), and
Mitch Wilde (Calgary Roughnecks) make up the Colonial contingent in the NLL.
On Sept. 17, 2019,
Tyson Gibson was selected by the expansion franchise New York Riptide with the first overall selection in the NLL Entry Draft. Gibson became the fifth RMU player ever to be chosen in the first round, and topped Kiel Matisz (1st round, 3rd overall in 2012) as the earliest pick in program history.
Coming Up
Robert Morris begins another extended road trip on Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m. when it travels to Detroit Mercy.
