Salt Lake City, Utah – Down 12-8 with 4:46 left in the third quarter, the Robert Morris University men's lacrosse team scored eight unanswered goals over the remainder of the contest to pick up a 16-12 victory over Utah this afternoon in a future matchup between ASUN Conference foes. RMU collects its fourth consecutive win to move to 7-5 on the season, while the Utes fall to 4-7.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
RMU led for all of 50 seconds until the 10:25 mark of the fourth quarter, when Johnny Chaisson's goal shortly after a faceoff win put the visiting Colonials ahead of Utah, 13-12. That was the fifth goal of an 8-0 blitz to close the game, which saw RMU make up a 12-8 deficit with two tallies in the third stanza and six in the fourth. Corson Kealey netted half of the Colonials' goals over that stretch, starting with the first one at 4:29 remaining in the third that halted a 4-0 rally for the Utes. Michael Autry, Jake Boudreau, and Ryan Smith also scored during the 8-0 run, and RMU won 9-of-12 faceoffs to help start the comeback.
(YET) ANOTHER RYAN RECORD
Previously on Ryan Smith's record-breaking season, the graduate attack nabbed the top spot in career points (April 10 vs. Cleveland State), career games played (April 16 at Bucknell), and single-game assists and points (March 2 vs. Bellarmine). Today Smith added another standard to his resume, as he became the program's all-time leading goal scorer with a seven-point (3g, 4a) performance against the Utes. The Burlington, Ontario native surpassed Trevor Moore (2008-11) with his 135th goal in Colonial colors, and increased his career point record to 210. Smith's 10th hat trick of the season also puts him within distance of the RMU single-season point standard, as his current number of 64 (41g, 23a) is six behind Luke Laszkiewicz's 2016 topper of 70.
CORSON CRUSH
After missing the last four games with an injury, senior attack Corson Kealey provided a much-needed boost offensively this afternoon with a team-leading four goals on seven shot attempts. In the process, Kealey moved into 10th place all-time at RMU in that category, as his 88 career tallies surpassed former teammate Adrian Torok-Orban (87; 2015-18). Despite the month-plus-long absence, Kealey sits third on the team this season in goals (19) and points (24), and owns hat tricks against Colgate, Duke, Utah, and Virginia.
BACK TO THE BEEHIVE STATE
Graduate attack Jimmy Perkins returned to Salt Lake City as an opponent this afternoon after previously captaining the Utes in consecutive campaigns from 2019-20. Perkins provided a pair of goals, two groundballs, and a caused turnover against his former teammates. The Pittsburgh product and one of two seventh-year players in NCAA Division I men's lacrosse this season extended his point scoring streak to 25 games, which is the 28th longest active streak nationally.
AUTRY AT THE X
Senior faceoff specialist Michael Autry was key in RMU's second-half turnaround, winning 13-of-19 draws – a mark that included an 8-of-11 performance over the final 30 minutes. Autry added four groundballs and his third career goal, scoring from a faceoff win with 1:09 remaining to seal the victory. The Frederick, Md. native has won double-digit faceoffs twice this season, previously doing so on Feb. 21 at Colgate with a career-high 20 victories.
EVERYONE CONTRIBUTES
RMU received a goal from eight different players with two additional Colonials providing at least one assist. Corson Kealey's four goals led the visitors, followed by Ryan Smith (3), Jake Boudreau (2), Jimmy Perkins (2), Brandon Sulhoff (2), Michael Autry (1), Johnny Chaisson (1), and Taggart Clark (1). Smith provided half of the visitors' eight assists, with Will Johansen (2), Boudreau (1), and Dan Taddeo (1) dishing out the others. Boudreau also collected a team-best six groundballs, and Liam Rosenthal made 12 saves to move to 6-2 in goal this season.
NEXT UP
The Colonials close the regular season on Friday, May 7 with a recently-added matchup at Syracuse. RMU's first meeting with the Orange will commence with a 4:00 p.m. opening faceoff from the Carrier Dome.
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