Rutgers Releases 2017 Schedule

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights, which is well-known for being a lacrosse school, are the 35th team in our 2017 schedule preview. The Scarlet Knights were one of the biggest surprises in Division I lacrosse last season, as they went 11-5 overall, and 3-2 in Big Ten play. They fell to Maryland in the Big Ten Championship game, 14-8, and did not make the NCAA Tournament. Let’s dive into their schedule.

RUTGERS

The Scarlet Knights will start the season in the Bronx QUEENS (Shout out to @CLLacrosse!) against former Big East foe St. John’s on February 11. Rutgers’ first home game is a week later on the 18th against Army West Point. Last year, the Scarlet Knights went a perfect 7-0 in games played at High Point Solutions Stadium. The team travels up to Connecticut to take on Fairfield on the 25th, followed by the start of a four-game homestand on February 28 against Wagner.

Rutgers’ only change to their schedule is taking out Monmouth in favor of Brown. They’ll play the Bears at home March 4 in what should be an offensive battle to say the least. The offensive firepower continues on the 10th as the team hosts Stony Brook, followed by a battle of Jersey against Princeton to close out their homestand on the 14th. The Scarlet Knights will travel to a pair of Newark's to wrap up nonconference play, as they’ll travel to Newark, New Jersey first to take on NJIT on the 17th. They’ll scuttle down to Newark, Delaware to take on the Blue Hens on the 25th before the start of Big Ten play. That kicks off March 31 in Baltimore against Johns Hopkins.

A trip to the Big House to take on Michigan caps off a four-game road trip on April 8, before coming back home to take on National Finalist and defending Big Ten champion Maryland at home on April 16. The team travels to State College to take on Penn State on the 23rd, before wrapping up the regular season at home against Ohio State on the 29th.

Brian Brecht’s crew does have some holes to fill, especially on offense with leading scorer Scott Bieda. Bieda led the team with 66 points in his final season in Piscataway. Ryan Hollingsworth scored eight goals for Rutgers last season as well. But there’s plenty of firepower returning, especially in the forms of junior attackman Jules Heningburg, and sophomore attackman Adam Charalambides. Heningburg had 60 points last season, while Charalambides exploded onto the scene as a freshman with a team-high 43 goals. The team also has senior midfielder Christian Trasolini, junior midfielders Christian Mazzone and Christian Scarpello, sophomore attackman Josh Jordan, and senior midfielder Jeff George returning, amongst others. Defensively, the team loses LSM Zack Sikora, who led the team with 18 caused turnovers last year, along with starting defenseman Branford Rogers. Returning to the defense include junior Michael Rexrode, senior Chris Groel, sophomore Garrett Michaeli, and junior d-middie Austin Divitcos. With the departure of Kris Alleyne in goal, junior Max Edelmann is the favorite to take over the starting role over sophomore Jack Ayre and incoming freshman Liam Donnelly. Alex Schoen and Joe Francisco are the primary face-off takers, but don’t be surprised if Francisco is the primary FOGO to start the regular season.

To see every team’s schedule and which one’s we’ve highlighted, check our our master schedule list.