Villanova lacrosse moved to 3-0 in conference play with a 14-9 victory over Rutgers on Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats lead the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway for the entire game, taking an 11-2 lead into half-time and blanking their opponent in the second quarter. Rutgers started the third quarter strong, scoring five goals to the 'Cats one, but Villanova had built up a big enough lead to hold on for the win in the fourth quarter.
Rutgers' Michael Diehl had a career day with a four goals against Villanova to lead a second-half comeback bid that fell short. They got as close as three goals with just over 8 minutes to go before Villanova slammed the door shut.
Villanova's Kevin Cunningham led his team with four points via two goals and two assists while Max Hart had three points on two goals and an assist. Eric Gartner and Mike Francia posted their first career goals while Paul Mita and Ryan DeSimone notched their first career assists in the victory. Jack Rice scored his 26th goal of the season during the game and had a total of three scores.
John LoCascio posted a game-high seven ground balls and four caused turnovers. Thomas Croonquist claimed 10-of-16 (62%) wins from the face-off X while Nolan Vihlen went 5-of-9 (55%) for the day.
Nova goalkeeper, Dan Gutierrez had 11 saves in the game while Rutgers Steven Lusby and Joseph Donnelly combined for eight saves in the defeat. Lusby made seven of those saves, but allowed 10 goals.
Up next, the 'Cats will host St. John's on Saturday, April 14th at home and will battle Notre Dame in what should be a contest between the Big East's top two teams a week later on the 15th.