PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Pat Spencer posted a hat trick in the game's first three minutes, 26 seconds on Saturday, helping the No. 1-ranked Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse team jump out to a 6-2 lead at No. 18 Rutgers University, and Jacob Stover backstopped the defense with 18 saves in a 13-7 non-conference victory at HighPoint.com Stadium.
 
Spencer finished with five goals and two assists for his third seven-point outing in as many games this season. Kevin Lindley added four goals, the third time this year he has had four or more. Chase Scanlan tallied three goals, and Alex McGovern posted goal and two assists.
 
Loyola also controlled the face-off 'X,' as Bailey Savio went 16 of 23 with a career-best 11 ground balls.
 
Spencer's seven points moved him into a three-way tie for 17^th-place in NCAA Division I history with 287, matching the totals of two of Syracuse University's Powell brothers, Casey (1995-98) and Ryan (1997-2000).
  Rutgers (2-2 overall) got on the board first as Adam Charalambides took a cross-crease feed from a dodging Ryan Gallagher and one-timed a shot from the right post 1:16 into the game. The Scarlet Knights' lead would be short-lived and their only one of the game.
 
Spencer quickly took over on the offensive end for Loyola. He tallied his first of the day when rolling off his defender to get to his right hand and score from nine yards out 41 seconds after the Scarlet Knights took the lead. He gave Loyola a 2-1 lead at 12:16 with a goal after Matt Benus caused a turnover on a Rutgers clear.
 
The Loyola senior's hat trick was complete with 11:34 to play in the first quarter when he bounced in a 12-yard shot from the high left-side.
 
Owen Mead scored at 9:54 to break up the Spencer and Loyola run, but the Greyhounds then held Rutgers scoreless for more than 29 minutes and scored six in a row.
 
Kevin Lindley tallied two-straight, the first off a Spencer assist and the second unassisted when he also drew a flag for a Rutgers illegal body check. On the extra-man possession, Peter Swindell threw down to Scanlan on the left of the crease, and Scanlan scored with 5:08 to play in the first quarter, giving Loyola a 6-2 lead.
 
The second quarter was nearly devoid of goals, save for a Lindley unassisted tally. Rutgers tipped a Greyhounds' pass, but it went right to Lindley in the middle of the Scarlet Knight's zone, he caught it, turned and scored from seven yards out to make it 7-2 with 12:01 left in the first half.
 
The teams would goal to the locker room with that score holding, and Spencer added to it with a highlight-reel goal. Stover picked off a Rutgers pass and gave it to Alex Johnson for a clear, and Johnson threw it to Spencer just below goal-line on the wide left side. Spencer ran past his defender, jumped through the crease and backhanded in his fourth goal of the day just 1:21 into the second half.
 
Rutgers broke a scoreless stretch of 29:51 when David Sprock tallied a goal down the left side at 10:45, but the Greyhounds came back with two more. Spencer fed McGovern rolling the crease, and he tallied a goal at 8:20, and Spencer then restarted off an out-of-bounds shot and beat his man to dunk in a shot on the near post at 5:49 to stretch the lead to 10-3.
 
The Scarlet Knights, however, scored three goals in a row after Spencer's fifth of the day. They got the first within 10 seconds despite Loyola winning the face-off. A caused turnover by Rutgers saw the ball bounce to Mark Schachte who fired on an empty net to start the run.
 
Mead then registered his second of the day at 4:46. After a Loyola turnover with less than 30 seconds to go in the third quarter, Rutgers cleared the ball, and Tommy Coyne scored with seven-tenths of a second left to pull the Scarlet Knights within four, 10-6.
 
Neither Loyola, nor Rutgers scored in the first six minutes of the final quarter until McGoven fed Scanlan for a goal at 8:57 to stretch the lead back to five. Michael Sanguinetti, however, quickly trimmed it back to four with a goal off a Schachte assist at 7:15.
 
Scanlan delivered his third of the game with a face-dodge to get free on the left side to score with 5:26 on the clock, and a slick transition provided the game's final goal. Stover made a clean save and threw it over the top to Swindell who immediately dropped it off to Ryan McNulty. He ran it to the top of the box and found McGovern along on the right side. McGovern threw to Lindley on the crease, and he scored at 3:02 to push the advantage back to six.
 
Loyola's defense contained two of the Scarlet Knights' top offensive threats. Charalambides entered Saturday with 10 goals and three assists in three games, but Paul Volante had primary marking responsibility and held him to one and one. Casey Rose, who has been Rutgers' top-scoring midfielder with 44 goals since 2017, was held scoreless on only one shot by McNulty.
 
McNulty also had six ground balls as Loyola posted a 41-30 advantage in that statistical category.

Stover's 18 saves match his season-high from the opener against the University of Virginia, and they are one off his career-high set in the 2018 NCAA Quarterfinal against Yale University. He had 11 of the stops in the second half and now has 67 saves in Loyola's last three games.
 
The Greyhounds play another highly-ranked team in their next game. They make the quick turnaround to face No. 9 Towson University on the road Wednesday, February 27, in a 6 p.m. game.