PISCATAWAY, N.J. (March 31, 2009) – Sophomore Kory Kelly (Princeton, N.J.) posted his third straight hat trick and 10 different Scarlet Knights scored to lead the Rutgers men's lacrosse team to a 17-1 victory over Wagner Tuesday evening at Yurcak Field.

The one goal given up is the fewest goals surrendered by a Rutgers team since a 10-1 victory over Yale on April 4, 1998. RU's 17 goals is a season-high and the Scarlet Knights offense has scored a remarkable 31 goals in the last two games.

Senior Jeff Rommel (Syracuse, N.Y.) tallied a season-high three goals and dished out an assist for Rutgers (4-6), while classmate Mike Dugan (Summit, N.J.) recorded a goal and a game-best four assists.

Wagner (1-9) scored its only goal of the game just over a minute into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Rutgers would control play the rest of the half though, ending the period on a 9-0 run. RU outshot Wagner 53-12 and won 16-of-22 face-offs.

"I thought as the game went on, we did what we had to do to take care of business," said head coach Jim Stagnitta. "It was nice to have an opportunity to get a lot of these guys in the game because they work just as hard as everyone else all week. That was certainly a bonus."

Rutgers will be back in action Saturday, hosting No. 16 Loyola (Md.) in a critical ECAC matchup. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. at Yurcak Field.

2009-04-01