NJIT men's lacrosse hosts Lafayette for their first home game at Saturday February 10 at 11:30am at Drew University's Ranger Stadium.
Drew University will be the Highlanders home field for third consecutive year, as NJIT continues construction for the new Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2018.
ALL TIME SERIES
The Leopards are one of six teams that the Highlanders have played all four years as a varsity program. Lafayette leads the series 3-0.
In NJIT's inaugural season Lafayette came out the victor in a 16-6 win in Easton, PA.
The following year, the score was closer with the Leopards winning 12-4 in a game at Drew University.
Last year, the Highlanders and Leopards battled it out in Pennsylvania, with Lafayette winning by just one goal 12-11. The 11 goals the Highlanders scored was a new program record at the time—now the record is 17 that the Highlanders got against Hampton last year. The Highlanders had the advantage after the first quarter 3-1, but the Leopards scored seven goals in the second to NJIT's three to take the 8-6 edge at halftime. In the third Lafayette scored three goals to the Highlanders one giving them the 11-7 lead. The Highlanders came back in the fourth with a goal, answered by Lafayette. And then scored another three goals to try for the comeback but fell short 12-11.
A LOOK AT THE LEOPARDS
Lafayette is 0-1 starting the season, coming off a 17-10 loss with No. 9 North Carolina on February 3
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Ed Williams is the Leopards interim head coach completed his coaching staff on October 3 with the additions of Scott Beida and Tim Desko as assistant coaches. Beida served as the volunteer coach last year and hails from Rutgers. Desko spent his last two seasons as an assistant at Le Moyne College in Syracuse. Desko started for four years for Syracuse and helped the team to two national championships in 2008 and 2009.
Picked to finish ninth in the Patriot League this season, Lafayette added 12 newcomers to their roster from six different states, including six from New Jersey, three from Pennsylvania and one from Virginia, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Lafayette returns their leading scorer from last season in Conor Walters, who produced 19 goals and six assists. Another returning attack player is Robbie Garavente. Garavente grabbed two goals against North Carolina while Walters made a goal and an assist. Freshman John Natoli and senior Will McCarthy led the charge against the Tar Heels, both tallying four points, with Natoli getting his first hat-trick in his first collegiate game and senior captain McCarthy getting himself two goals and two assists.
John Becker won the starting faceoff spot in the middle of last year, his rookie season, and started off this year winning 19 faceoffs out of 31 against UNC. Becker also leads the team in ground balls with five.
Goalie Jonathan Anastos is the Leopards go-to guy between the pipes and picked up 10 saves against North Carolina adding four ground balls.
A LOOK AT THE HIGHLANDERS
In the Highlanders first game of 2018 they dropped a 13-8 decision to Lehigh on February 3. The Highlanders made vast improvement from last year notching their best performance against the Mountain Hawks in their three years of competition falling 21-4 in 2016 and 15-5 in 2017.
Of the 23 players who stepped on the field for the Highlanders, 14 of them were freshmen and sophomores.
Veterans
Cole Robillard and
Ryan Darrow lead the team in points after the first game, each earning themselves two goals and an assist for three points each.
Aaron Forster also contributed two goals in the Highlanders first game, extending his scoring streak from last year, and now has a 14 game scoring streak.
Robillard also has a team-high four ground balls, with
John Tachon and
Colton Johnson right behind him with three each.
Brett Goldstein has two of the Highlanders three caused turnovers.
Adam Gonzalez already has as many face-off wins as all of 2017, going 6-17 in the first game from the "X" and boasts a .353 percentage.
Goalie
Nick Marzullo posted his third best performance, notching 16 saves in the first game, and holds a .552 save percentage.
