Ohio State
Rutgers
No. 10 Ohio State Falls in Regular Season Finale at Rutgers, 17-10 – Ohio State Buckeyes
4/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 25, 2015
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – In the first Big Ten Conference games between the teams, the No. 10-ranked Ohio State men’s lacrosse team lost to Rutgers, 17-10, Saturday to close the regular season.
Next up, Ohio State (10-5, 3-2 B1G) heads to College Park, Md., for the inaugural Big Ten Tournament. The Buckeyes will be the No. 2 or 3 seed, depending on the outcome of the game between Johns Hopkins and Maryland at 8 p.m. tonight. The semifinals will be played at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday, with the championship at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Rutgers scored the first two goals in the opening 2:04, with a goal from Jules Heningburg at 14:08 and Scott Bieda at 13:56. Ohio State tallied the next two, with senior Jesse King setting up classmate David Planning at 12:38 and Planning scoring unassisted at 7:06. Each team scored twice in the final 3:47 of the quarter, with three of goals in the final 1:14. Rutgers’ Zack Sikora put the Scarlet Knights back ahead (3-2) at 3:47. At 1:14 Buckeye sophomore John Kelly tied the game at three, answered by Rutgers’ Joe Nardella at 1:06 after the next faceoff. With five seconds left in the quarter, King tied the game at four. Shots were 8-6 in favor of Rutgers in the quarter.
The Scarlet Knights scored seven goals in the second quarter, shutting out the Buckeyes, to take an 11-4 lead into halftime. Ryan Hollingsworth put RU ahead (5-4) at 13:07 and the Scarlet Knights scored six times in the final 6:29 of the quarter. The Scarlet Knights had 17 shots in the second quarter, with Ohio State attempting three.
Rutgers scored the first two goals of the third quarter, with tallies at 8:47 and 7:22, to push the lead to 13-4. At 4:51 Ohio State redshirt sophomore Tyler Pfister tallied, assisted by junior Carter Brown, to end the Scarlet Knights’ run and Kelly tallied his second of the game at 4:09 for a 13-6 RU lead after three quarters. Rutgers outshot the Buckeyes, 13-6, in the third.
Each team scored four times in the fourth quarter. Rutgers opened the scoring at 12:19 before a three-goal run by the Buckeyes. Freshman Colin Chell scored off assists from King at 10:37 (man up) and 8:20, followed by an unassisted goal from Brown at 4:07 for a 14-9 game. Rutgers then scored twice in four seconds, with a goal from Jeff George at 3:04 and Nardella at 3:00. Chell answered 30 seconds later, assisted by Brown, and the final goal came from RU’s Christian Mazzone at 2:21. Shots were 11-8 in favor of the Buckeyes in the stanza.
For the game, Rutgers outshot Ohio State, 46-26. Buckeye redshirt sophomore Tom Carey had eight saves, including six in the third quarter. Rutgers’ Jake Andersen had 10 stops.
Rutgers had the advantage in groundballs (41-33) and faceoffs (20-11). Graduate student Christopher May and senior Evan Mulchrone each had four groundballs to lead Ohio State. Mulchrone, senior Kacy Kapinos and freshman Brendan Barger each had two of the Buckeyes’ 10 caused turnovers.
King, who was named a Tewaaraton Award nominee earlier this week, had a four-point day with three assists and a goal. He leads the Buckeyes with 35 goals, 23 assists and a career-high 58 points this season. Chell had a team-high three goals vs. the Scarlet Knights, notching his second career hat trick. Kelly and Planning each scored twice, Kelly’s second consecutive two-goal game and Planning’s third in the last four outings. Brown, who is second on the team with 28 goals, 16 assists and 44 points, had a goal and two assists for three points.
