Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team hits the road again this Friday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. when it travels across the Keystone State to take on Bucknell. RMU enters at 5-5 overall and is coming off a 15-7 win over Cleveland State on Senior Day last Saturday, while Bucknell is 2-4 with a 14-6 victory over Lafayette in its most recent outing.
GAME #11
Robert Morris Colonials (5-5) at Bucknell Bison (2-4)
April 16, 2021 // 7:30 p.m. // Lewisburg, Pa. – Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium (13,100)
Live Video: ESPN+ ($) // Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
History w/ Bucknell
Overall: 1-1 | Home: 1-0 | Away: 0-1 | Streak: L1
Last Game: March 20, 2012 – Lewisburg, Pa. – No. 20 Bucknell 17, Robert Morris 10
This will be the third time that Robert Morris and Bucknell have played, but the Keystone State counterparts haven't clashed since the 2012 season. RMU upset the No. 17 Bison in their inaugural 2011 meeting, 7-5, before Bucknell extracted some revenge the following year in Lewisburg, 17-10.
In that March 20, 2012 matchup, No. 20 Bucknell used a 5-1 first-quarter blitz to come away with a 17-10 win over the Colonials. RMU received hat tricks from
Dave Morton (4g, 1a) and Kiel Matisz (3g), with Casey Abbott (2g) and Kyle Buchanan (1g, 1a) also contributing goals. Mike Grosz collected a game-high 11 groundballs and went 15-of-28 at the X, and
Ben Lewis and
Tyler Rankel recorded a pair of caused turnovers each.
The Colonials' first win over a nationally-ranked opponent came against No. 17 Bucknell, as they upended the Bison, 7-5, on March 22, 2011 at Mt. Lebanon Stadium. Trevor Moore scored twice for RMU, netting the game-winner with 6:40 remaining to break a 5-5 deadlock. Moore (2g) and Kiel Matisz (1g, 1a) recorded multiple points for the hosts, while
Ben Lewis caused three turnovers defensively. In goal,
Charles Ruppert made 12 saves over the course of the contest to lead the Colonials to a milestone victory.
Scouting the Bison
Frank Fedorjaka, in his 16th season as head coach, has Bucknell at 2-4 in 2021 with wins over Cleveland State (15-9) and Lafayette (14-6). The Bison also have a common opponent in Colgate (9-10) and have played three nationally-ranked foes in No. 11 Lehigh (6-18), No. 12 Loyola (Md.) (10-24), and No. 16/18 Navy (10-13).
Senior attack Tommy Sopko leads Bucknell offensively with 22 goals and 26 points, with junior attack Alston Terry following him in points (17) thanks to a team-high 10 assists. Terry's classmate Brenden Lundy also has scored double-digit goals, netting 10 in five appearances. Senior defenseman Bryant Boswell paces the team in caused turnovers (12) and junior defenseman Travis Talarico leads in groundballs (25). Third-year Nick Crovatto is the primary faceoff option for the Bison, going 50-of-103 (.485) at the X. In goal, senior Ben Clark has started all six games, recording a 12.83 goals against average and .454 save percentage.
Last Time Out
RMU celebrated its senior class last Saturday with a 15-7 victory over Cleveland State in its final home game of the 2021 campaign. The Colonials opened up a 7-3 halftime lead on the Vikings and tacked on four unanswered goals in the final stanza to move to 5-5 (.500) on the season. In the process,
Ryan Smith became the program's all-time leading scorer by passing Trevor Moore with a goal in the second quarter.
Smith led the hosts in scoring with five points as he posted his ninth hat trick of the season and added two assists.
Brandon Sulhoff (2g, 1a) provided three points, while
Jake Boudreau (2g),
Elliot Holden (2g), and
Jimmy Perkins (2g) added two goals apiece. Boudreau matched
Johnny Chaisson with a game-high six groundballs, and Chaisson forced four turnovers defensively.
Michael Autry enjoyed a 7-of-9 performance at the X in his final home game, and
Liam Rosenthal made 10 saves to pick up the win in net.
Ryan Runs Down Records
Graduate attack
Ryan Smith became the program's all-time leading scorer last Saturday against Cleveland State, tallying five points (3g, 2a) to give him an even 200 for his career. He surpassed Trevor Moore (195; 2008-11) for the top spot, and needs five more goals to best the 2011 alumnus for that school record. Smith is also slated to become the program's all-time leader in games played this Friday at Bucknell, with that contest set to be his 67th appearance. The Burlington, Ontario native also slots fourth all-time in assists (70) and games started (56).
Despite the 2021 season being shorter than previous ones, Smith could also set a new standard for single-season points, needing 11 more to top
Luke Laszkiewicz's record of 70 that was established in 2016. The Tewaaraton Men's Watch List member enters Friday's matchup ranking second nationally in goals (36) and ranks ninth in that category on a per-game basis (3.60). He also sits second in points (54) and 11th on a per-game average (5.40), with both his goals and points per game marks currently serving as RMU single-season records. Smith 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 continues to meet milestones in his final hurrah, with his hat trick against Jacksonville on April 3 giving him over 100 career goals. Perkins, who now has 103 tallies to his name, has scored 61 of those goals while donning RMU colors with the other 42 coming in a two-year span at Utah from 2019-20.
Perkins also became the 17th player in program history to record 100 points with the Colonials earlier in the season, reaching the century mark on March 20 at No. 9 Virginia. The Senior CLASS Award candidate has 117 points (61g, 56a) with RMU and is 11 shy of breaking into the top 10 in that category. He also ranks sixth all-time in assists, needing five more helpers to move into the top five.
Well-Rounded
Fourth-year
Jake Boudreau has been impressive this season as a two-way midfielder, leading RMU in groundballs (48) while ranking fourth in caused turnovers (8), and fifth in goals (11) and points (18). Boudreau, a senior who plans on returning in 2022, is 13 groundballs and 24 points away from reaching the century mark in both statistics.
Boudreau's 4.80 groundballs per game this season currently ranks sixth in RMU single-season history, with the five marks ahead of him all achieved by faceoff specialists. The Brampton, Ontario native has recorded five or more groundballs in five contests this year, and needs seven more groundballs to break into the top 10 of the single-season leaderboard.
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 completes its season on Saturday, May 1 at Utah. Slated for a 1:00 p.m. (ET), 11:00 a.m. (MT) start in Salt Lake City, the contest will help graduate student
Jimmy Perkins come full circle, as the Quaker Valley High School alumnus originally spent four years at RMU (2015-18) before enrolling at Utah as a graduate transfer. He is one of two men's lacrosse student-athletes in 2021 to earn a seventh year of athletic eligibility, which he is concluding with the Colonials.
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