University of Richmond
1-7
Rutgers
6-2
Spiders MLAX Hangs With Rutgers In 10-7 Road Loss
03/17/2014 | Men's Lacrosse
Richmond scored goals in bunches, but allowed Rutgers to do the same in a 10-7 Spiders road loss at the Scarlet Knights Monday afternoon in men's lacrosse action. Twice the Spiders scored two goals in the span of a minute, but ball possession was the key in the result. The Spiders fall to 1-7 in their inaugural season, with Rutgers improving to 6-2.
The Scarlet Knights won all 19 faceoffs in the game.
“Unfortunately, we came up short against a well-coached Rutgers team, but our players showed resiliency for 60 minutes,” said Richmond head coach Dan Chemotti.
"They have the best faceoff guy, statistically, in the country and he was dominant today. To lose all of them and continue to fight until the last horn is a testament to the character of our players."
The teams played defense for the first six minutes of the opening period, but Rutgers scored four goals in the last half of the period to lead by that margin to the second.
In the second, Richmond came alive with a pair of quick goals in the first three minutes of the frame. J.P. Forester (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) scored the team's first goal on an assist from Jake Miller (New Canaan, Conn.). Less than a minute later, the Spiders found the back of the net again, with Alex Hatem (Syracuse, N.Y.) scoring on an assist from Dan Ginestro (Syracuse, N.Y.) in a man-up opportunity to make it 4-2. Hatem's assist gives him a point (a goal and/or assist) in all eight Spiders games this season.
The teams traded goals in the last four minutes of the quarter, including a goal with just under a minute and a half left from Jean-Luc Chetner (Pentiction, British Columbia) for a 5-3 halftime score. Chetner also has a point in every Richmond game this season.
As in the first half, Rutgers scored the first three goals of the third quarter to push the lead to five, but Richmond scored twice in response and lead was to three. Mitch Goldberg (Damascus, Md.) scored an unassisted goal at 10:39 in the third. Less than a minute later, Forester scored his second goal of the game, his fourth-straight game with two goals, and his 14th of the season. Forester's four-game goal-streak is the longest active run on the team.
The Scarlet Knights reeled off two more goals, one to end the third and one to start the fourth for a 10-5 lead. In the last four minutes of the game, Goldberg scored twice more for his third hat trick of the season and a three-goal game to cut the lead back down to three, where the final tally landed. He leads the squad with now 17 goals this season.
"Outside of that three-goal run in the third quarter, we were able to play with them," added Chemotti.
The loss went to goalie Benny Pugh (Powhatan, Va. / Woodberry Forest School), who recorded 13 saves in the contest and is now 1-5 on the season.
Defenseman Ryan Dennis (Peapack Gladstone, N.J.) led all players with a career-best six caused turnovers.
The Spiders will face Wagner Friday at 8 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the women's lacrosse team, which starts at 6 p.m. in a game against William & Mary.
NOTES: Goldberg added an assist for four points, the fourth time he has logged four or more points in a game for Richmond this season. In all four of his games with a hat trick, he has at least one assist… He has a goal in seven of the eight Richmond games… Pugh has 12 or more saves in the last three games, facing more than 40 shots in each of those contests… He collected a career-high five ground balls to leas the team… Each team was 1-for-5 in man-up opportunities in the contest.
