 "Photo: Andrew Howard")
The Rutgers men's lacrosse team has reached the point in its season where its goals could not be any clearer. With five games left to play and four of those matches being against some of the best teams in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, the Scarlet Knights know, as they have known all along, that in order for the 2008 season to be a success they must be successful in conference play.
"It's nice to be in the position that we're in right now," head coach Jim Stagnitta said. "It helps with confidence and it really puts everyone in the right frame of mind going into the game."
Loyola comes into the game in a similar situation as the Knights. Both teams have shown tremendous promise and both teams have had hard fought battles against some of the most formidable teams in college lacrosse. But both teams fell just short in most of those battles and both teams will be taking the field Saturday with records of 4-4.
Despite the similarities, Loyola is distinguished from the Knights in one critical way. The Greyhounds currently have an unblemished 3-0 conference record to RU's record of 2-1. From that standpoint, a win by the Knights would be a huge boost while a loss could put them in a hole that could be nearly insurmountable at this stage of the season.
"This game is very important in terms of conference play," Stagnitta said. "We still have a chance in the conference. Loyola is undefeated so a win against them would put us right there."
The Greyhounds will be led by this week's ECAC Co-Offensive Player of the week, sophomore attack Cooper MacDonnel.
MacDonnel, who is coming off a four goal performance in Loyola's 13-8 loss to No. 2 Syracuse, will pose a challenge to an RU defense that has been solid of late after letting up a combined 8 goals in the last two games.
"We're prepared for their offense, and we're prepared for MacDonnel," Stagnitta said. "He's a heady player and a good shooter, but we're going to be ready for him."
The last time the two teams faced off in '07, the Knights were able to grab their first-ever win against the Greyhounds by a convincing score of 17-7.
While that game was at Rutgers own Yurcak Field, Saturday's game will be at Loyola's Diane Geppi-Aikens Field in Baltimore. RU has only been on the road for two games this year and failed to come out with a win in either game as they fell to Army and in-state rival Princeton.
