NEWARK, N.J. --- NJIT Men's Lacrosse goes into the weekend looking for a bounce-back victory in its second game of the season, a road matchup against the Lafayette College Leopards in Easton, Pa.
LAST TIME OUT
NJIT opened the 2019 campaign with a 15-8 loss to the No. 13 Lehigh Mountain Hawks Saturday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports Complex. Seniors
Ryan Darrow and
Cole Robillard led the way for the Highlanders as each senior scored a pair of goals and assisted on another.
Colton Johnson was the other Highlander to score two goals, while senior
Aaron Forster recorded a goal and an assist and junior
Ryan Kaden set up two scores. Sophomore
Jackson Boyd rounded out NJIT's scoring and redshirt junior
Grant Toller added an assist. Sophomore
Alexzander Hunt stopped a career-high 19 shots in a full 60 minutes of action, Forster and freshman
Matthew Bowerman led the team with five ground balls and senior
Kevin Falteisek caused a team-high three turnovers.
HIGHEST OF HIGHLANDERS
Aaron Forster continues to sit atop the record books for the young Highlander program. After his last game, Forster extended his marks for most career goals (80), assists (36), and points (116) at NJIT.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Ryan Darrow and
Cole Robillard having multi-goal games together at Lehigh marked the first time since last year's game at Georgetown (April 21) that at least two Highlanders scored multiple goals in the same contest. In that game against the Hoyas, Darrow (2 goals) and then-freshman
Collin Fogerty (3) were the tandem leading the team.
CAREER HIGH FOR HUNT
Hunt's 19 saves at Lehigh set a new career high for the second-year goalkeeper, surpassing the 15 stops he made in his second career start at UMass Lowell on April 28 of last year.
CAPTAINS FOR 2019
Fifth-year head coach
Travis Johnson has announced the four student-athletes who were voted captains by their teammates for 2019. Selected to lead the Highlanders are: senior midfielder
Ryan Darrow, senior attacker
Aaron Forster, junior attacker
Ryan Kaden, and junior defender
John Tachon. "Our team has chosen four outstanding young men that are stellar student-athletes, great leaders, high character men and phenomenal people. They lead by example and elevate the people around them. We are excited that they will lead us in the 2019 season," Johnson said about the quartet.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
The Highlanders have continued to grow in their program in their five seasons of existence. After bringing in their largest squad ever in 2018 (38 members), the Highlanders has increased their numbers this year to 43 after bringing 11 newcomers into the fold.
QUALITY COMPETITION
NJIT'S 15-game schedule includes matchups with three teams ranked in either the first Inside Lacrosse or USILA polls of the season: Lehigh (13th IL /13th USILA); UMass (18th/NR); and Georgetown (19th/18th).
IN 2018...
- Forster paced NJIT in goals (30), assists (13), total points (43), man-up goals (6), shots (109), and shots on goal (58)
- Tachon scooped up the most ground balls (94) and caused the most turnovers (18).
-
Adam Gonzalez won 43.5% of his faceoffs (91-209) to lead the Highlanders.
STEPPING IN NET
The graduation of starting goalkeeper
Nick Marzullo leaves sophomore
Alexzander Hunt and senior
Cameron Cronk as the only goalies with collegiate experience on the roster. Cronk is the more experienced of the two (15 games over three seasons, .468 save pct., 89 saves, 11.45 GAA) but Hunt played the most in 2018 (8 GP / 2 starts, .494 save pct., 39 saves, 13.85 GAA).
SCOUTING LAFAYETTE
Lafayette opened their 2019 campaign with a 14-8 loss at No. 12 Rutgers on February 2 in the first game for new Leopards head coach Patrick Myers. Sophomore Andrew Robbins led the way for Lafayette, recording his first career hat trick against the Scarlet Knights. Pacing the Leopards in other categories were senior Conor Walters and junior Robbie Garavente (2 assists), freshman Ryan Ness (4 ground balls), and sophomore Gabe Smithline (3 faceoff wins).
