Quick Hits About The 'Hounds

• Loyola University Maryland men's lacrosse returns to Ridley Athletic Complex for the second time this season when it hosts Rutgers University at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 24.
• Luke Staudt has averaged 14.7 saves per game with a .564 saves percentage through the season's first three games.
• Staudt leads the Patriot League and is fourth in NCAA Division I in saves per game.
• Loyola's attack of Matthew MInicus, Evan James and Adam Poitras have led the Greyhounds in scoring this year with 19 goals between. Minicus has seven, while Poitras and James each have six.
• The Greyhounds are in their 15th season of competition at Ridley Athletic Complex. Loyola's home field, which opened in 2010, has been a formidable advantage for the Greyhounds. They are 72-28 (.720) all-time at the stadium.
• Charley Toomey is in his 19th year as head coach of the Greyhounds. Including assistant coaches Matt Dwan and Marc Van Arsdale and Steve Vaikness, the four have 67 years of experience in their current roles at Loyola. Ryan McNulty returns for his second season as director of operations.

Looking Back

• Johns Hopkins scored three goals in a stretch of just over five minutes, and the 10th-ranked Blue Jays extended their lead to four and went on to a 13-7 victory over Loyola on Saturday.
• Joey Kamish took a Seth Higgins pass and scored on the doorstep for Loyola, drawing the Greyhounds to within a goal, 7-6, with 12:40 left in regulation, but the Blue Jays' Hunter Chauvette used a Jacob Angelus assist to score at 10:30 and spark the Blue Jays' run.
• Angelus was involved in the next two goals for Johns Hopkins, assisting on a Matt Collison tally with 8:12 left on the clock. He then scored for the Blue Jays at 5:17 to play, and they led, 10-6.
• Evan James and Adam Poitras combined for a Loyola goal at 4:45 when James fed Poitras in the middle for a low-to-low goal from 12 yards out, and the Greyhounds were back within three.
• The Blue Jays, however, scored three times in the final three minutes to provide the final difference.
• Luke Staudt made 17 saves in goal for the Greyhounds.
• Adam Poitras has two goals and two assists, while Matthew MInicus posted two goals and one assist for Loyola.

Watch The Game

• Saturday's game will stream live on ESPN+. 

In The Polls

• Loyola enters the game receiving votes in both the USILA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse media version. Rutgers checks in at No. 17 in both versions.

Series History

• Rutgers and Loyola will meet for the 15th time on the lacrosse field Saturday when the Greyhounds enter the game with an 11-2 lead in the all-time series.
• The teams met five times during the 1990s and then were ECAC Lacrosse League foes from 2005-2009. This game is the fifth of a series that was renewed in 2019.
• Loyola won the first seven meetings between the teams before the Scarlet Knights won the 2007 game. The Greyhounds then won the next four contests, but Rutgers won, 13-12, on Loyola's home field in 2022, and 10-6, last year in Piscataway. Loyola is 6-1 in games played on its home field.
• The teams' head coaches, Charley Toomey and Brian Brecht were both assistants at Loyola from 2002-04.

On The Attack

• Loyola's starting attack of Evan James, Matthew Minicus and Adam Poitras led the Loyola offense in the opener against Georgetown, combining for 13 goals and five assists on 29 shots.
• James, who will move between the attack and midfield throughout the year, scored a career-high nine points with five goals and a personal-best four assists. He earned Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week honors after the game.
• Poitras, another player who will move positions as the game demands, had four goals and an assist, while Minicus scored four times.
• Overall, the three have scored 19 of the Greyhounds 29 goals this season and contributed nine of 18 assists. 

Lots Of Scoring Returns

• Loyola entered the 2024 season with 96.8 percent of its scoring from a year ago intact on the roster. Only six of the Greyhounds 185 goals from 2023 do not come back, and all of those tallies came from defensive players.
• Six players scored 12 or more goals, and nine had 10 or more points during the year.

Preseason Honors

• Evan James and Adam Poitras both picked up Preseason All-America recognition prior to the 2024 campaign. USA Lacrosse Magazine named the pair to the honorable mention attack after James scored 31 goals and had 10 assists, and Poitras totaled 34 and 15, a season ago.
• Four Greyhounds were recognized on the Preseason All-Patriot League Team with Luke Staudt being named the conference's Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year. He was joined on the team by Matthew Minicus (attack), James (midfield), and Mustang Sally (short-stick defensive midfield). 

Sparking The Attack

• Evan James and Adam Poitras made the shift to starting on attack for the Greyhounds after the regular-season game at Boston University on April 15, 2023, with James moving to one spot down low for the April 18 game against Georgetown with Poitras making the move April 22 versus Colgate.
• James started the trend with two goals against the Hoyas. Poitras and he both put up four-goal games four days later against the Raiders with Poitras' quartet coming with three assists. Poitras had another four-goal game to close the regular-season at Lehigh. James then set a Patriot League Championships single-game record with six goals in the quarterfinal at Navy. Both had four-goal outings at Boston University in the Patriot League Semifinals; James posted three assists in that game, and Poitras had one.
• Including the start of this season, they have scored 45 goals (James 24, Poitras 22) and dished out 19 assists (11, 7) in the 17 total starts on attack. Of the 17 starts, they have combined for eight four-goal games.

No Slacking Sophomore

• Matthew Minicus was not just been among the leaders in scoring for Loyola last year, he was one of the top first-year players in the nation for goals scored per game. Minicus led Patriot League first-year players in goals (33) and points (49), and he finished the year tied for the team-lead in points and second in goals.
• He had the first four-point game of his career on March 1, 2023, at Towson when he scored twice and assisted on two more goals, and he followed that with a four-goal against Lafayette. Minicus was named the Patriot League Offensive Player and Rookie of the Week, and he also earned a spot on the USILA Team of the Week, after scoring seven goals at Bucknell. He picked up his second Patriot League Rookie of the Week honor on April 24 after combining for six goals and three assists versus Georgetown (2 and 1) and Colgate (4, 2).
• This season, he opened the year with a four-goal effort – all coming in the second half – during a win over Georgetown, and he scored once at Maryland and twice at Johns Hopkins. Through three games, he leads the team with three goals.

Back As The Backstop

• Luke Staudt started the 2023 season as hot as a goalkeeper could be, posting double-digit save performances, including one with 19 stops in the season-opening win against then-No. 1 Maryland. 
• After five games (Maryland-Lafayette), he had 70 saves against 44 goals allowed for a .614 save percentage. Over the next seven games he played (Duke-Colgate), his save percentage dipped to .417.
• Staudt did not play in the regular-season finale at Lehigh, but he came back in stellar form in the Patriot League Quarterfinals at Navy, making 18 saves on 25 shots on goal (.720) to finish one off his then-career-high. He came back in the semifinal with 20 saves on 31 shots on goal (.645) against Army West Point. 
• Overall last year, he led the Patriot League and was No. 6 in the nation in saves percentage (.554). This year, he opened with 11 saves in a win over Georgetown and was named Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week, and he followed that performance with a 16-save outing at Maryland and a 17-save game at Johns Hopkins. He is fourth in NCAA Division I in saves per game heading into the Rutgers game.

New Look Defense

• Loyola debuted a new look (personnel-wise) defense in the opener against Georgetown with several players seeing their most-extended playing time for the Greyhounds on close defense or the rope unit.
• Alex Bean and Mustang Sally were the stalwarts having been starters at close defense and short-stick defensive midfield, respectively, last year. Max McGillicuddy has been a bit part of the Greyhounds short-stick rotation for the last two seasons, but he moved up to the top rotation this year. Michael Callahan, Jacob Sullivan and Brett Daubert all saw their first extended playing time as short sticks.
• Chase Gregory made his collegiate debut as the first long-stick midfielder on the field after missing all of last year with an injury. Diego Roman continued to see considerable time at the position, too.
• Remi Reynolds, who transferred from Rutgers after last season, started on close defense along with Bean and Joe Houlihan who made one start last year.

Scoring Where He's Needed

• Adam Poitras had his freshman season, during which he was a starter on the Greyhounds' first midfield, cut short by the COVID pandemic after he'd scored five goals and dished out seven assists through six games.
• He played in all 16 games as a sophomore in 2021, but his production was hampered as he came back from offseason surgery. As he became healthier throughout the year, his point production increased and he had eight goals and eight assists in the last seven games of the season. Poitras finished second on the team in 2022 with 29 goals, and he was third with 38 points.
• After that junior season of 2022, Poitras played for the Whitby Warriors of the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League and led the Warriors to both the Mann (OJLL 'A') and Minto Cup (National) titles. He was named Most Valuable Player of both tournaments, and in the Minto Cup, he tied for tournament-high honors with 14 goals and added 15 assists. Poitras also earned a silver medal while playing for the Canadian team at the 2022 U-21 Men's World Championships, along with Loyola teammate Josh Fairey.
• Poitras moved to start on attack late in the 2023 season, and he finished the year leading the team in points (49) and goals (34); he has played 58 games during his career and has 85 goals and 45 assists for 130 points. He put up a career-high seven points against Colgate last season, tying his career-high marks in goals (4) and assists (3), and he matched the four-goal mark less than a week later at Lehigh and did so again at Boston University in the semifinals.
• In the 2024 opener against Georgetown, he was again an attack starter, scoring four goals and assisting on one.
• The athletic gene pool runs strong in his family. His younger brother, Matthew, was a second-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins in 2022 and has five goals and 10 assists this year for the NHL team through 33 appearances.

Steady Production

• Evan James has been one of the Greyhounds' best point producers since the start of the 2021 season, scoring at least once in 49 of the 57 games he's played. In 2022, he earned All-Patriot League Second Team honors for the second season in a row, scoring 26 goals and assisting on 11 while starting on the Greyhounds' first midfield. In 2021, he played primarily on attack and had 32 goals and 12 assists.
• James had three four-goal games in 2022 – at Navy and at Colgate. He scored two or more goals in eight of Loyola's 16 games last year.
• Last year, he had five hat tricks and seven games with two or more goals; he now has 15 career hat tricks and 27 games with two or more goals. 
• He started the last six games on attack in 2023 and had 18 goals, including four on five shots against Colgate and a Patriot League Championships record six at Navy. He then had a four-goal, three-assist game at Boston University in the semifinal.
• Over 57 career games played, James is the Greyhounds' active leader in goals (98) and points scored (136). His 98 goals scored are good for 14th in school history.

Don't Slow Your Mustang Down

• Mustang Sally enters the 2024 season as a Preseason All-Patriot League player at short-stick defensive midfield after posting excellent numbers both on the defensive and offensive sides of the ball.
• He caused 20 turnovers, leading all short sticks in NCAA Division I, and had six goals and four assists for 10 points.
• In two-plus seasons as a short-stick for the Greyhounds, Sally has posted 35 caused turnovers and 46 ground balls to go with seven goals and six assists. He had a goal and an assist in the first half of the season opener against Georgetown

Toomey's Team

• Charley Toomey is in his 19th year as the head coach at Loyola and his 27th as a member of the Greyhounds' coaching staff. Overall, he is in his 31st year on the Evergreen campus, including his four seasons as a student-athlete from 1986-90.
• Toomey has a 178-95 career record. Early in the 2016 season, Toomey became the second coach in program history to reach and cross the 100-win plateau; he stands second on the program's all-time wins chart behind his college coach, Dave Cottle (181-70, 1983-2001).
• As a head coach, Toomey has coached 52 USILA All-Americans, 104 all-conference selections, 21 conference positional or players or rookies of the year, a Tewaaraton Award winner and five finalists and 28 USILA Scholar All-Americans.
• In January 2019, Toomey was named to the coaching staff of the U.S. Men's National Team as an assistant coach. He was an assistant for the gold-medal winning team at the 2023 World Championships in San Diego.

Get To Ten

• Since Charley Toomey became head coach at Loyola in 2006, the Greyhounds have scored 10 or more goals on 171 occasions; Loyola has won 80.7 percent of those games (138-33).

Up Next

• Loyola remains at home for a Tuesday, February 27, game against Towson University that is slated to start at 6 p.m.
• The Greyhounds then open Patriot League games on the road with a Saturday, March 2, game at Colgate University.