Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team concludes a four-game stretch away from Moon Township this Saturday, April 3 at the Crown Lacrosse Classic where it will face Jacksonville. This will be the seventh meeting between the Colonials and Dolphins and the second consecutive season they've clashed on a neutral site. RMU enters at 3-5 overall after falling to Drexel last Saturday, 19-13, while Jacksonville is 5-3 (2-0 SoCon) and are coming off wins over Mercer (16-6) and VMI (18-12).
GAME #9
Robert Morris Colonials (3-5) vs. Jacksonville Dolphins (5-3)
Crown Lacrosse Classic
April 3, 2021 // 12:00 p.m. // Rock Hill, S.C. – Bob Jones Stadium
Live Video: N/A // Live Stats: JUDolphins.com
History w/ Jacksonville
Overall: 4-2 | Home: 2-0 | Away: 2-1 | Neutral: 0-1 | Streak: L2
Last Game: Feb. 23, 2020 – Sparks, Md. (U.S. Lacrosse Headquarters) – Jacksonville 15, Robert Morris 8
This will be the seventh time that Robert Morris and Jacksonville have played, with the Colonials owning a slight 4-2 advantage in the all-time series. The Dolphins have won the last two meetings however, winning last season and in 2015.
Last year at U.S. Lacrosse Headquarters, Jacksonville started fast with a 7-1 first-quarter lead and rode it to a 15-8 win over RMU. The Colonials received a pair of two-goal games from
Austin Popovich (2g) and
Ryan Smith (2g, 1a), with
Shaun Vines providing four groundballs and three caused turnovers defensively.
Jake Boudreau,
Eli Doyle,
Brad McCulley, and
Dan Taddeo also scored for RMU.
The Colonials' last win against the Dolphins came in the 2014 season, a 13-9 decision at Joe Walton Stadium.
James Rahe (4g, 2a) and
Luke Laszkiewicz (4g, 1a) both posted hat tricks for the hosts, while JonPatrik Kealey recorded four points on a goal and three assists. Defensive duo
Sean Meagher and
Tyler Rankel combined for seven caused turnovers and
Chris Barney finished 10-of-18 at the X with a game-high eight groundballs.
Scouting the Dolphins
Fifth-year head coach John Galloway currently has Jacksonville at 5-3. The Dolphins share RMU's common opponents of Bellarmine and Duke, earning a 19-8 win over the Knights while suffering a 17-6 loss to the Blue Devils. Jacksonville also owns a pair of wins over Mercer (12-11 [OT], 16-6) and triumphs against Utah (8-3) and VMI (18-12).
Redshirt junior midfielder Jack Dolan is the Dolphins' top offensive player, leading the team in goals (17), assists (14), and points (31). He shares the top spot in helpers with fifth-year attack Matt Stagnitta, who has recorded 25 points (11g, 14a). Redshirt senior Evan Tyler and redshirt sophomore Troy Hettinger also have double-digit goals to their names with 12 and 10, respectively. Redshirt freshman Nathan Kapp carries an impressive 57.7-percent success rate on faceoffs and has scooped up a team-best 54 groundballs. The redshirt junior duo of Jason Yoquinto and Adam Baker have split eight starts in goal, with Yoquinto carrying the better goals against average (10.45 to 11.66) and save percentage (.526 to .408).
Last Time Out
Down 10-5 at halftime, RMU used a 6-0 run to start the third quarter to grab an 11-10 lead over Drexel last Saturday, but the Dragons answered with nine of the last 11 goals to ultimately win 19-13. Drexel opened the contest with a 4-0 start, then responded to the Colonials' blitz with a 6-0 surge of its own.
Brandon Sulhoff scored a career-high five goals in the defeat after entering the day with just three to his name this season.
Ryan Smith added his seventh hat trick of the year, and
Austin Popovich (2g, 2a) and
Jimmy Perkins (2g, 1a) both recorded multiple points. Perkins also paced the Colonials in caused turnovers with three, while
Jake Boudreau collected a team-high seven groundballs.
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 Jacksonville, Smith is seven points shy of matching the all-time record established by Trevor Moore (195; 2008-11) and 13 goals from meeting his standard of 134 in that category. The Burlington, Ontario native also ranks fourth all-time at RMU in assists (67), games played (64), and games started (54).
Smith, a member of the Tewaaraton Men's Watch List and candidate for the Senior CLASS Award, ranks 11th in goals per game (3.38) and 16th in points per game (5.25). 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 month, reaching the milestone with a seven-point afternoon against No. 9 Virginia. Perkins has now tallied 109 points (56g, 53a) in 42 games as a Colonial, and 161 points (98g, 63a) 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 on March 20 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 returns home for its final scheduled tilt at Joe Walton Stadium on Saturday, April 10 at 1:00 p.m. when it faces Cleveland State on Senior Day. The Colonials will recognize the careers of
Michael Autry,
Alex Cash,
Jimmy Perkins,
Austin Popovich,
James Scane,
Ryan Smith,
Will Sturgis,
Kyle Vince, and
Shaun Vines as part of Senior Day festivities.
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