Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team begins its 17th season of competition on Sunday, February 7 when it travels to Durham, N.C. for a clash with No. 1 Duke. The Blue Devils, picked as the preseason No. 1 in both the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Coaches' and Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Polls, are coming off a 6-2 campaign in 2020 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament semifinals in 2019. This is the first meeting between RMU and Duke, as well as the Colonials' 38th overall clash with a nationally-ranked foe and their third against the No. 1 team.
GAME #1
Robert Morris Colonials (0-0) @ #1 Duke Blue Devils (1-0)
February 7, 2021 // 4:00 p.m. // Durham, N.C. – Koskinen Stadium (7,000)
TV: ACC Network // Live Stats: GoDuke.com
On-Air Talent: Anish Shroff (play-by-play), Matt Ward (color commentary)
History w/ Duke
Overall: 0-0 | Home: 0-0 | Away: 0-0 | Neutral: 0-0 | Streak: N/A
Last Game: N/A
Robert Morris and Duke have never played each other. The Blue Devils are one of four first-time opponents on the Colonials' 2021 slate, joining Cornell (April 17), Richmond (April 24), and Utah (May 1).
Scouting the Blue Devils
15th-year head coach John Dankowski leads Duke into the 2021 season. The Blue Devils won their season opener on Friday, Feb. 5, knocking off No. 5 Denver at home, 12-10 - that triumph being the 200th for Dankowski with the program.
Duke received four points each from freshman Brennan O'Neill and graduate student Michael Sowers against the Pioneers. O'Neill posted a hat trick in his first collegiate game, while Sowers - a transfer from Princeton - netted a goal and three assists. Another graduate student, Tanner Uppgren, came off the bench to play the final 43:23 between the pipes and made 11 saves while allowing just four goals.
The Blue Devils bring back 92 percent of its scoring from 2020, and welcome six fifth-year transfers to the program. Sophomore attack Dyson Williams is the leading returning scorer for Duke, tallying 30 points on 25 goals and five helpers as a freshman last year.
Play the Best, Be the Best
RMU's 2021 schedule will feature numerous clashes with high-profile programs, as five of 12 opponents landed on the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 Poll. The Colonials have played 38 games against nationally-ranked foes in their history, winning six of those clashes over the last 10 seasons.
RMU has brought its best against Top 20 teams as of late, winning four of the last nine meetings. The Colonials rattled off three consecutive wins in the 2018 campaign at No. 16 Penn State (12-9), No. 10 Marquette (12-2), and No. 20 Saint Joseph's (9-8, OT), and netted a 13-12 triumph at No. 17 Lehigh on April 10, 2019. Three of those five defeats have come by three goals or less, with one of those instances coming at No. 1 Maryland (11-14) in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Never Grow Up
RMU received a boost to its 2021 roster with the return of graduate student
Jimmy Perkins, who was previously on the team's roster from 2015 to 2018. Perkins spent the last two seasons at the University of Utah, using the NCAA waiver extending a year of eligibility to spring sport student-athletes to return to Moon Township to pursue a second Master's degree.
A product of Quaker Valley High School, Perkins is one of two seventh-year players to suit up in the 2021 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse season, joining Adam Charalambides of Rutgers. He missed his first two seasons at RMU due to injury, then accumulated 79 points (38g, 41a) and 45 groundballs in 34 games over the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. In two years at Utah, Perkins tallied 52 points (42g, 10a) over 18 contests, netting a team-high 18 goals in the abbreviated 2020 season.
Perkins ranks third all-time at RMU in assists per game (1.21) and owns the single-game record for helpers with six on Feb. 9, 2018. He was an All-Northeast Conference (NEC) Second Team pick in 2018, recording 30 assists and 61 points that season - numbers that rank second and fifth, respectively, in the program's season rankings. Between his time with the Colonials and Utes, Perkins has registered 80 goals, 51 assists, 131 points, and 48 groundballs in 52 career games.
One More Time
RMU will see a more complete send-off to the storied collegiate career of
Ryan Smith in 2021, as he was one of three seniors (
Austin Popovich,
James Scane) to take advantage of an NCAA waiver granting an additional year of eligibility to 2020 spring student-athletes. Smith, a graduate attack from Burlington, Ontario, enters his fifth season as one of the program's top players with three All-NEC nods, the 2017 NEC Rookie of the Year award, and 2020 USILA Scholar All-America accolades to his name.
Smith was selected with the third overall pick in the 2020 National Lacrosse League (NLL) Entry Draft by the Rochester Knighthawks, and will likely pursue a pro career following the season. He established the single-game school record for points (10) and tied it in goals (8) on Feb. 15, 2020 at Canisius to open last season. Smith enters the 2021 campaign ranking sixth all-time at RMU in goals (94), assists (52), and points (146), and slots fifth in points per game (2.61).
Pop-A-Shot
The cancellation of the 2020 season after six games brought to a halt the breakout campaign of
Austin Popovich. Popovich, a midfielder from Columbus, Ohio, had recorded 30 points (13g, 17a) in 43 games over his first three seasons before exploding for 27 points on 18 goals and nine assists in 2020.
Popovich ranked inside the top 30 nationally in points per game (4.50, 29th) and goals per game (3.00, 30th) - numbers that also ranked second and first, respectively, on the Colonials. The fifth-year midfielder also excels in the classroom, being named to the NEC Academic Honor Roll four years running as well as earning USILA Scholar All-America plaudits.
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 nine true road contests and 10 of its 12 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).
All in the Family
One of the RMU men's lacrosse program's running traditions is its family lineage, as the Colonials have regularly had sets of brothers on the roster at the same time. While RMU does not have that this season, they do have two seniors in
Corson Kealey and
Will Sturgis who saw their older brothers play for the program in earlier years.
Kealey's older brother is JonPatrik Kealey, who suited up for the Colonials in the 2014 and 2016 seasons. JonPatrik was an All-NEC Rookie Team selection in 2014, compiling 30 points on a team-high 23 goals. He missed the 2015 and most of the 2016 campaigns due to injury, but still was picked with the 10th overall selection in the 2017 NLL Entry Draft following his RMU career.
Sturgis' older brother is
David Sturgis, who played 28 games as a midfielder and faceoff specialist from 2015 to 2018. David spent the 2018 season as a teammate of his younger brother Will, as the duo helped lead the Colonials to their first NEC Tournament championship and subsequent NCAA Tournament berth.
New to RMU
RMU welcomes an eight-player freshman class into the fold for 2021, featuring three defensemen, two attackmen, a midfielder, a faceoff specialist, and a goalkeeper. The class hails from three different states (New Jersey, New York, Virginia) and two Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario).
On defense, additions
Reed Greco (Hauppauge, N.Y.),
Ben MacDonnell (Oshawa, Ontario),
Jake McGonigle (Nanaimo, British Columbia), and
Brian Simmons (Coquitlam, British Columbia) will look to make an impact. Greco, MacDonnell, and McGonigle add to the Colonials' depth at defenseman, while Simmons is one of five goalkeepers on the roster.
Liam Keane (South Buffalo, N.Y.) and
Eric Swagerty (Fairfax Station, Va.) join RMU as attackmen, while
Connor Boss (East Aurora, N.Y.) is a new midfielder for the Colonials.
Steven DelleMonache (Mantua, N.J.) is one of two players looking to replace
Trey Arnold at the X, joining holdover and former Bellarmine transfer
Michael Autry.
Next Up
RMU continues its season-opening three-game road swing on Saturday, Feb. 13 when it travels to High Point for a noon opening faceoff. The Colonials and Panthers have played in seven consecutive seasons, with each team winning three times during that stretch. RMU has won three of the last four meetings between the two sides, including a 15-11 triumph last year on Leap Day.
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