Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team finishes up a season-opening four-game road swing on Saturday, February 27 when it travels to the Hoosier State for a matchup with No. 8 Notre Dame. This is the second meeting between the Colonials and Fighting Irish, with their first clash coming in the 2014 season. RMU enters at 1-2 overall, gaining its first win of the 2021 campaign last Sunday over Colgate, 17-14. This is the first game of the year for Notre Dame, as it is coming off a 2-3 season in 2020 and NCAA Tournament quarterfinal berth in 2019.
GAME #4
Robert Morris Colonials (1-2) @ #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (0-0)
February 27, 2021 // 2:00 p.m. // Notre Dame, Ind. – Arlotta Stadium (2,500)
Live Video: ACCNX // Live Stats: StatBroadcast
History w/ Notre Dame
Overall: 0-1 | Home: 0-0 | Away: 0-1 | Neutral: 0-0 | Streak: L1
Last Game: April 12, 2014 – Notre Dame, Ind. – No. 9 Notre Dame 15, Robert Morris 5
Robert Morris and Notre Dame have played once in their histories, meeting on April 12, 2014 at Arlotta Stadium. The No. 9 Fighting Irish defeated the Colonials in that contest, 15-5, after opening up a 10-2 lead at halftime.
RMU was led offensively by
James Rahe, who tallied three points on two goals and an assist.
Luke Laszkiewicz also scored twice, and
Taylor Graves (1g, 1a) and
Eric Rankel (2a) provided two points each.
Sean Meagher collected eight groundballs and three caused turnovers defensively, and
Matt Bukovac made 12 saves in 34:58 of relief action.
Scouting the Fighting Irish
Kevin Corrigan is the longest tenured NCAA Division I men's lacrosse head coach, entering his 34th season guiding Notre Dame, and is one of four active Division I coaches that have accumulated 300 career wins. He leads a Fighting Irish team currently ranked No. 8 in both the Inside Lacrosse Media and United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Coaches' Poll, and that went 2-3 in the abbreviated 2020 campaign. Notre Dame finished 9-7 (2-2 ACC) in 2019, advancing to the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals where it suffered a 14-13 overtime defeat to conference rival Duke.
The Fighting Irish have three Preseason All-Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) selections, with one in graduate faceoff specialist
Kyle Gallagher earning Preseason All-American recognition from both USILA and Inside Lacrosse. Gallagher, a transfer from Penn who started his career at Hofstra, led the nation in groundballs (15.40) last year and won 270 faceoffs as a junior in 2019. Fellow graduate student Jack Kietly collected 12 groundballs and five caused turnovers in defense last season, and senior Ryan Hallenbeck has played in 20 games over the last two years as a short-stick defensive midfielder.
Last Time Out
RMU picked up its first victory of the season last Sunday, winning 17-14 at Colgate. The Colonials were originally scheduled to play Bucknell that Saturday before a campus-wide restriction moved that contest to Saturday, April 17, and RMU instead traveled north to Hamilton, N.Y., where it defeated the Raiders for the first time in three tries (2011, 2012).
The Colonials fell behind 7-4 over the opening 24 minutes before using an 8-0 run over the second and third quarters to take a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Ryan Smith (5g) and
Jimmy Perkins (2g, 3a) both had five-point performances, while
Austin Popovich (2g, 2a),
Jake Boudreau (4a), and
Corson Kealey (3g, 1a) each netted four points. Perkins and Boudreau also scooped up a game-high eight groundballs, while
Ben Savick earned his second win in a RMU uniform with 14 saves in 58:49.
Climb The Board
Graduate attack
Ryan Smith has gotten off to an incredible start to begin his final season, ranking fifth nationally in goals per game (4.00) and 12th in points per game (5.00). Smith, who was selected third overall by the Rochester Knighthawks in the 2020 National Lacrosse League (NLL) Entry Draft last September, has accumulated 15 points (12g, 3a) in three games, and has tied
Tyson Gibson (2016-19) for fifth place all-time at RMU in career points with 161.
Smith also enters this weekend ranking fourth in career goals (106) and fifth in career assists (55). If the Burlington, Ontario native continues performing at his current pace, he would break the program records in those categories, which are currently held by Trevor Moore (2008-11) who netted 134 points and 195 points over 61 contests. He currently owns the single-game standards in goals (8) and points (10) - setting both on Feb. 15, 2020 at Canisius - and has been named to three All-Northeast Conference (NEC) teams, the NEC Rookie of the Year in 2017, and an USILA Scholar All-American in 2020.
Keep It 100
Senior attack
Corson Kealey became the 16th different Colonial to record 100 points last Sunday at Colgate, registering four points (3g, 1a) in the 17-14 win. Kealey is now sitting at 102 points, which puts him 26 points shy of breaking into the top 10 in that category at RMU. The Ottawa, Ontario native also is 10 goals away from top-10 status there, and also currently slots fourth in goals per game (1.88) and eighth in points per game (2.49).
Graduate student
Jimmy Perkins - one of two seventh-year players in NCAA Division I lacrosse - could be the next to hit the 100 point milestone, needing 11 more points to achieve the accomplishment in a RMU uniform. Perkins has recorded 89 points with the Colonials on 44 goals and 45 assists, and owns 141 career points (86g, 55a) when adding in his 18 appearances at Utah between 2019-20.
On The Radar
Despite being 1-2, the Colonials are second among the teams receiving votes in the USILA / Dynamic Top 20 Poll with 17 points. RMU has been in the receiving votes section of each version of the rankings, and also are receiving votes in the Inside Lacrosse Media Top 20 Poll.
If the Colonials can break into the rankings this season, it would be the first time since the 2018 campaign that they garnered a national ranking. RMU made its presence known in nine consecutive ranking releases that year, reaching as high as No. 13 in the USILA Coaches' Poll and finishing at No. 15 in the Maverik Media/Inside Lacrosse Poll. The Colonials also broke into the Top 20 in both the 2010 and 2012 seasons.
Autry at the X
Senior faceoff specialist
Michael Autry was superb at the X last Sunday at Colgate, winning a career-high 20 faceoffs in 33 draws. Autry's 20 faceoff wins are tied for the second most in RMU single-game history, matching the total Mike Grosz accumulated against Bellarmine on March 21, 2010. Grosz also owns the program record, winning 28 on March 3, 2012 in the Colonials' previous meeting versus the Raiders.
Autry, a native of Frederick, Md., was named to the NEC All-Tournament Team during the Colonials' repeat run in 2019 after winning 17 faceoffs in wins over Mount St. Mary's and Hobart. He played his freshman season in 2018 at Bellarmine, finishing fourth in the Southern Conference (SoCon) in faceoff percentage (.530) while recording 31 groundballs and four points (1g, 3a).
Road Warriors
There's no truth to the rumor that RMU will be changing its acronym to RWU, but Road Warrior University would be an accurate way to describe the Colonials' program in recent seasons. As an independent in 2021, RMU is slated to play eight true road contests and nine of its 11 games away from Joe Walton Stadium.
This isn't a new concept to the Colonials. In last year's abbreviated campaign, RMU played five of its six contests away from Moon Township with four of them being true road games. In their 2018 and 2019 NCAA Tournament seasons, the Colonials played a combined 21 road games - plus two neutral-site bouts - compared to just 12 home contests.
Fly High Jack
In January, RMU announced that it will retire the jersey number 43 in honor of the late
Jack Toomb. The Colonials also will wear helmet straps with 'Toomb 43' on them to honor their former teammate.
Toomb passed away in March 2020 at the age of 23. He played at RMU from 2016 to 2019, and was a cornerstone of the program's 2018 and 2019 NEC Tournament championship sides as a long-stick midfielder and defender. A three-time All-NEC Second Team selection, Toomb ranks third in program history in games played (65), fourth in groundballs (210), and fifth in groundballs per game (3.23) and caused turnovers (64).
Last July,
Tyson Gibson wore Toomb's name and number during the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) season with the Philadelphia Barrage. RMU plans on holding a formal jersey retirement ceremony sometime in 2021.
From Bobby Mo to Pro
RMU has made its name known in the professional ranks of indoor and outdoor lacrosse, and accomplished an impressive feat last year. In the 2020 season, the Colonials had the highest representation of any college or university in the National Lacrosse League (NLL) with 11 former players suiting up for 10 different teams.
After the selections of
Ryan Smith and
Brad McCulley in the 2020 NLL Entry Draft, RMU became the only school to boast multiple first-round picks in the 2019 and 2020 drafts. The Colonials have 12 players active in the NLL as of the 2021 season with Kevin Brownell (Buffalo Bandits), Kyle Buchanan (Buffalo Bandits),
Tyler Digby (Colorado Mammoth),
Tyson Gibson (New York Riptide), JonPatrik Kealey (Buffalo Bandits),
Luc Magnan (Halifax Thunderbirds), Kiel Matisz (Philadelphia Wings),
Brad McCulley (Buffalo Bandits),
James Rahe (Vancouver Warriors),
Justin Robinson (Saskatchewan Rush),
Jacob Ruest (New England Black Wolves), and
Mitch Wilde (Calgary Roughnecks).
A New Home (in 2022)
On Friday, February 5, it was announced that RMU would join the newly-formed ASUN Conference for men's lacrosse, starting in the 2022 season. The ASUN first built a men's lacrosse conference in the fall of 2012, and began play in 2014 with Richmond earning the league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid. The Colonials will join a group of six that includes Air Force, Bellarmine, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy, and Utah.
Next Up
RMU returns to Joe Walton Stadium for its home opener on Tuesday, March 2 when it hosts Bellarmine. The Colonials were originally supposed to host the Knights on Tuesday, Feb. 23 to begin the home slate, but a two-week pause of team activities for Bellarmine shifted the date. The all-time series has gone in favor of the Knights, 8-6, but RMU won the most recent matchup on Feb. 23, 2019 in a 15-7 decision in Moon Township.
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