Moon Township, Pa. – Previously off this weekend, the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team added a road game against Drexel this Saturday, March 27. This will be the ninth meeting between the Colonials and Dragons and the second consecutive season in which the two Keystone State foes have clashed. RMU enters at 3-4 overall after nearly stunning No. 9 Virginia last Saturday, 14-12, while Drexel sits at 2-2 and is coming off a 24-8 mid-week win over Lafayette.
GAME #8
Robert Morris Colonials (3-4) at Drexel Dragons (2-2)
March 27, 2021 // 4:00 p.m. // Philadelphia, Pa. – Vidas Field (1,500)
Live Video: DragonsTV // Live Stats: StatBroadcast
History w/ Drexel
Overall: 1-7 | Home: 1-2 | Away: 0-4 | Neutral: 0-1 | Streak: L3
Last Game: Feb. 25, 2020 – Philadelphia, Pa. – Drexel 24, Robert Morris 12
This will be the ninth time that Robert Morris and Drexel have played, with the Dragons owning a 7-1 advantage in the all-time series. Drexel is riding a three-game winning streak in the series, though prior to last season the two teams had not clashed since 2014.
Last year, the Dragons rode a 26-14 advantage at the X to defeat the Colonials, 24-12. Ryan Smith recorded four points (1g, 3a) to lead the visitors, while Brandon Sulhoff posted a hat trick. Jake Boudreau scooped a team-best five groundballs to go along with a pair of tallies offensively.
RMU's lone win over Drexel came in dramatic fashion, as it withstood a late push to capture an 11-10 victory in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play on April 4, 2009. The Colonials led 11-8 with 2:07 to go before the Dragons responded with two goals, only for the visitors to not find the tying tally in the closing seconds. Five different RMU players (Taylor Caparosa, Billy Conques, Brandon Johnson, Keith Lee, Patrick Smith) scored two points each, with Smith and Kyle Buchanan (3a) leading the way at three points apiece. Sal Barcia made 11 saves to pick up the win in the cage.
Scouting the Dragons
12th-year head coach Brian Voelker has Drexel at 2-2 this season with victories over Towson (12-10) and Lafayette (24-8). The Dragons finished 3-3 in the abbreviated 2020 campaign and were selected to finish third in the CAA Preseason Coaches' Poll, receiving one first-place vote.
Senior midfielder Ryan Genord, redshirt freshman attack Sean Donnelly, and senior attack Aidan Coll share the team lead in goals as all three have netted 10 thus far. Genord tops the trio in points with a team-high 17, with he and junior attack Jack Mulachy dishing out a team-leading seven assists each. Sophomore Mark Hartmann and senior Jimmeh Koita split the face-off duties, with Hartmann's .537 mark sitting higher than Koita's .473 success rate. Koita has scooped a team-high 17 groundballs, while classmate Sean Quinn ranks fourth nationally in caused turnovers per game (2.75). In goal, junior Ross Blumenthal has started all four contests, compiling a 13.29 goals against average and .402 save percentage.
Last Time Out
RMU is coming off a near-upset of No. 9 Virginia last Saturday, ultimately falling 14-12 after the contest was tied at 10-10 with 12:24 to play. The Colonials trailed 7-4 at halftime but responded with a 6-3 run over the third and early portion of the fourth quarters, only for the Cavaliers to answer with four straight goals to take back control. Virginia held off a persistent RMU side by winning 23-of-28 faceoffs, making up for the 52-35 gap in shot attempts.
Jimmy Perkins recorded a new season high in points with seven, tallying three goals and four assists. He was joined in the hat trick club by fellow graduate attack Ryan Smith (3g, 2a) and senior Corson Kealey (3g). Perkins also shared the groundball lead with junior midfielder Will Johansen as both netted four, and fourth-year defenseman Shaun Vines caused a pair of turnovers defensively. Sophomore goalkeeper Liam Rosenthal made his third consecutive start for the Colonials, making nine saves.
Ryan Runs Down Records
Graduate attack Ryan Smith has enjoyed an outstanding final hurrah thus far, and is on the cusp of history as we enter the second half of the 2021 season. Entering this weekend's matchup with Drexel, Smith is 10 points shy of matching the all-time record established by Trevor Moore (195; 2008-11) and 16 goals from meeting his standard of 134 in that category. The Burlington, Ontario native also ranks fourth all-time at RMU in assists (67), fifth in games played (63), and sixth in games started (53).
Smith, a member of the Tewaaraton Men's Watch List and candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, ranks 14th in both goals per game (3.43) and points per game (5.57). That points per game mark currently slots as the best single-season mark in program history, nearly a full point higher than his (2020) and Luke Laszkiewicz's (2016) current standards of 4.67. He currently owns or shares each of the single-game scoring records at eight goals (Feb. 15, 2020 at Canisius), six assists (March 2, 2021 vs. Bellarmine), and 11 points (March 2, 2021 vs. Bellarmine).
Jimbo Slice
Graduate attack Jimmy Perkins became the 17th player to record 100 points in a RMU uniform last Saturday, reaching the milestone with a seven-point afternoon against No. 9 Virginia. Perkins has now tallied 106 points (54g, 52a) in 41 games as a Colonial, and 158 points (96g, 62a) over his collegiate career when adding in his 2019 and 2020 seasons at Utah.
Perkins, a candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, has brought his best against the best competition, registering six of his 18 career hat tricks against nationally-ranked opponents. The Pittsburgh, Pa. native has done this three times with RMU against No. 16 Penn State (3g), No. 1 Maryland (3g), and last Saturday versus No. 9 Virginia (4g), while also doing so versus the No. 7 Cavaliers (3g), No. 2 Duke (5g), and No. 17 Air Force (4g) during his two-year stint at Utah.
Corson Closes In
Following his 13th career hat trick last Saturday at No. 9 Virginia, senior attack Corson Kealey sits three goals shy of breaking into the top 10 at RMU in that department. Kealey has scored 84 goals in 45 career contests, and trails Adrian Torok-Orban (87; 2015-18) for 10th place.
Kealey has bounced back from an injury-riddled 2020 season, currently ranking third on the team in goals (15) and points (20). The Ottawa, Ontario native has recorded three hat tricks this year, two of those coming at No. 1 Duke and last weekend versus the Cavaliers. Kealey scored an eye-popping 52 goals as a sophomore in 2019, which came one shy of tying the single-season record set by Luke Laszkiewicz in 2016.
A New Home (in 2022)
On 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.
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, and they plan on holding a formal jersey retirement ceremony sometime in 2021.
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).
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).
Next Up
RMU finishes off a four-game stretch away from Moon Township on Saturday, April 3 at 12:00 p.m. when it faces Jacksonville in the Crown Lacrosse Classic. Played on a neutral site in Rock Hill, S.C., this will mark the sixth season the teams have faced each other and the second straight on a neutral field, previously playing at U.S. Lacrosse Headquarters on Feb. 23, 2020.
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