No. 7 Ohio State Wins B1G Opener at No. 16 Rutgers in Overtime

Saturday, March 21

New Brunswick, N.J.

1 p.m.

Ohio State

8-1, 1-0

Rutgers

7-3, 0-1

Ohio St.

Rutgers

No. 7 Ohio State Wins B1G Opener at No. 16 Rutgers in Overtime

3/21/2026 6:15:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 7 Ohio State men's lacrosse team started its 2026 Big Ten Conference season with a 6-5 overtime win at No. 16 Rutgers Saturday in Piscataway, N.J.

Short Story
The Buckeyes' only lead of the Big Ten opener against Rutgers came when graduate attacker Alex Marinier scored the game-winning overtime goal. The team battled back from a three-goal deficit at the half to come away with their eighth win of the season.

Junior goalie Jack Allen made 10 saves in 39:05 of work to earn the win.

Freshman attacker Khalif Hocker recorded his fourth multi-goal game of the season with the team's final two goals of regulation to send the game to overtime. Also adding a multi-point game was freshman Jake Struck with two assists on the day.

Jack Oldman picked up a team-high five ground balls and went 5-for-8 from the faceoff. Cullen Brown had four caused turnovers and four ground balls on the day.

How it Happened

After a back-and-forth defensive effort in the first five minutes of the game, Rutgers took the lead off a goal from Kasey Mongillo at 9:58.
Ohio State called a timeout following the goal and went on to score on its next possession. Matt Mayfield won the faceoff and the ensuing ground ball before making a pass up the field to Griffin Liedel. Liedel connected with Garrett Haas, who sent a shot past Cardin Stoller to tie the game at 9:46.
Caleb Fyock made two saves while Matt Mayfield won all three faceoffs in the first 15 minutes of Big Ten play at SHI Stadium.
Rutgers scored three times in the second quarter for a 4-1 advantage at the half. Jack Allen came into the game at 8:56 in the quarter and made four saves in the frame.
The Buckeyes tallied the first two goals of the second half, with Russell Melendez and Liam White scoring off assists from Jake Struck to bring the team within one of Rutgers.
The Scarlet Knights recorded the final goal of the third quarter, and their last goal of the game, at 2:44.
Khalif Hocker scored both of Ohio State's fourth quarter goals to neutralize the Rutgers lead. His first goal came at 13:39 and he tied the game at 4:01.
Jack Allen made three saves in the fourth to hold Rutgers scoreless in the final frame of regulation, including one in the last two minutes of the game to keep the Scarlet Knights from taking back the lead. The Buckeye defense also caused two turnovers in the fourth quarter.
The Buckeyes needed just nine seconds to win the game in overtime. Jack Oldman won the faceoff and dumped the ball off to Dominic Shaw, who found Alex Marinier lined up outside the hash marks ready to send the game-winning shot past Stoller.

Game Notes

Brown's four caused turnovers against Rutgers are a season-high and give him the program record for career caused turnovers. He now has 75 for his career, officially passing Keenan Ochwat's 73.
Allen earned his first career win playing career high minutes and making a career-high 10 saves.
Ohio State has now won five straight against Rutgers.

Up Next
Ohio State and No. 9 Penn State face off Saturday, March 28 at 4 p.m. from Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium.

#GoBucks