Exhibition matches leave opening for goalkeepers

The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team entered its two exhibition games Saturday with many question marks surrounding a team that limped to a 6-9 finish last season. After both games concluded, there were more questions than answers.

The Scarlet Knights lost the first scrimmage to Drexel, 13-8, and defeated Penn, 11-10, in the second. Although the Knights struggled on offense and left more to be desired at the defensive end, their starting goalkeeper situation remained the biggest mystery.

Senior Rudy Butler and junior Steven Lusby split time in goal last season, with Butler starting the first five games and Lusby the last seven.

Butler went 3-2 as a starter between the pipes last season, recording a .484 save percentage and a 9.6 goals against average. Lusby went 2-5 with a .494 save percentage and an 11.12 goals against average.

But Saturday, two freshman goaltenders in Kris Alleyne and Jake Andersen made the most positive impression on head coach Brian Brecht.

“I would say right now it’s wide open,” Brecht said of the goalkeeper competition. “Because some of the evaluations of the scrimmages [Saturday], I thought both Kris Alleyne and Jake Andersen, the two freshman played better than expected. So I do think that’s going to be a little bit more wide open now. To take nothing away from Lusby and Butler, but I think we do have more competition there than we did last year.”

Brecht would not reveal who his starter would be for the team’s season opener, but said whoever ends up in goal for the Knights’ first game would have to prove himself in order to stay there.

“I don’t want to use the term quick hook, but at the end of the day it’s a long season and the best players are going to play in every position,” Brecht said.

The Knights were in the bottom third of the conference last season in goals against average, saves per game and save percentage. But a lot of that can be attributed to a defense that Brecht admits is still a work in progress.

After junior defensemen Nicholas Contino and Christopher Zybrick, the unit is young and inexperienced. Finding the right combinations of players could be an ongoing season-long project.

“I would say defensively, I don’t think we’re as aggressive, tough and communicate as much as we need to be right now,” Brecht said. “We don’t need everybody to be the cover guy, but we need everybody to be able to work together as far defending the goal in different areas of the field.”

Offensively, there were some bright spots for the Knights, despite Brecht admitting they “labored” to get good shots. Senior attack Duncan Clancy scored three of the team’s eight goals against Drexel, which was a good sign for the Knights considering Clancy missed the first four games last season because of injury.

But to be a consistently successful offensively, the Knights will need contributions from their younger players to replace the 46 percent of point scoring they lost to graduation.

Freshman attacks Nick Kilkowski and Scott Bieda provided that lift Saturday, as Kilkowski tallied four goals against Penn and Bieda provided two assists.

The Knights open their season Saturday against Manhattan at the RU Stadium Complex.