Moon Township, Pa. – With little separating the two sides through 30 minutes, the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team buckled down in the second half and outscored High Point, 9-5, over the final two frames to earn a 15-11 victory in its 2020 home opener at Joe Walton Stadium.
Robert Morris (2-2, 0-0 NEC) used a balanced attack offensively, with four players contributing four points. Jake Boudreau led the way with a six-point afternoon on a hat trick of goals and assists, while Austin Popovich and Brandon Sulhoff ripped the net four times apiece. Ryan Smith provided four points on a goal and three helpers.
Grant Koopman earned the first start of his career in the cage and posted the win with an 11-save performance. James Leary caused three turnovers defensively, while Trey Arnold went 14-24 at the X and scooped up a game-high eight groundballs.
Neither team could gain an edge in the early going, as Caison Dillon's opening tally was matched shortly after by Boudreau. Asher Nolting's goal was answered 25 seconds later by Johnny Chaisson, and Sulhoff found the back of the net 1:02 after Hunter Vines scored.
The Colonials went ahead for the first time 15 seconds into the second quarter when Smith finished a feed from Boudreau. High Point (1-5, 0-0 SoCon) jumped back in front with a pair of tallies, but Sulhoff and Elliot Holden gave RMU a two-goal rally to grab a 6-5 advantage. 35 seconds after Holden's tally, Ben Baker scored to tie it at halftime, 6-6.
After the teams traded goals to begin the third quarter, the Colonials used a 3-0 surge to take back the lead for good. Arnold started it off with a tally off the faceoff, then Smith found Popovich for a pair of goals over a span of 4:15 – one being on a man-up opportunity – to make it 10-7. The Panthers pulled within two with a man-up goal from Devon Buckshot, but Sulhoff completed his hat trick 22 seconds later to make it a three-goal game after three frames.
Another man-up tally made it 11-9 early in the final stanza, and that score remained until the 8:30 mark when Sulhoff buried his career-high fourth goal to restore the three-goal edge. Two Tyler Hendrycks tallies sandwiched a Boudreau goal to make it 13-11 with 3:51 to play, but RMU stood tall defensively and added a pair of late scores to move to .500 on the season.
Smith is now the sixth player in program history with 50 career assists. The senior also moved to seventh all-time in points with 139.
Arnold is the fourth player in school annals to record 200 groundballs. Now at 206, the senior faceoff specialist is 51 shy of the program record of 257 established by Mike Grosz (2009-12).
The Colonials are now 10-6 all-time in home openers.
Robert Morris is back on the road for a pair of contests this coming week. The Colonials travel to Detroit Mercy on Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m., then play Marquette at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 7.
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