The #20 Fairfield University men's lacrosse team improved to 3-0 on the year with a 10-7 win over ECAC Lacrosse League foe #19/19 Rutgers University Saturday afternoon.  With the win the Stags capture their ECAC league opener for the third straight season, going to 1-0, while the Scarlet Knights fall to 1-2 on the year and 0-1 in conference play.

The Stags struck quickly to open the game as Chris Campbell netted a pass from Chris Ajemian 66 seconds into the contest.  The Scarlet Knights answered just as quickly, on a Justin Pennington goal at the 13:17 mark.  Travis Nelson would account for the scoring the rest of the first quarter, twice touching net, for a 3-1 advantage after the first period.

Rutgers battled back in the early part of the second quarter, with a pair of goals, but Brendan Finnerty put the Stags ahead 4-3 at intermission with an unassisted goal with 1:25 left in the half.  Rutgers struck exactly a minute into the second half, to once again even the score, 4-4, but the Fairfield offense took over from there.

In the final 12:57 of the third quarter the Stags touched net six times, with a pair of three goal runs, sandwiched around two Rutgers tallies.  Ryan Mulford started the Stags run, with an unassisted goal at 12:57, and Nelson followed with a pair of goals 1:12 apart.  Rutgers scored its two goals at the 9:03 and 7:56 marks to make the lead 7-6 for the Stags.

Rookie Doug Kuring started the second three-goal run for Fairfield, netting a pass from Nelson at the 6:59 mark.  Just over two minutes later Nelson fed Ajemian for a 9-6 lead, and Kuring followed 30 seconds later with an unassisted tally, for the 10-7 lead.  Rutgers would score early in the fourth quarter, to get back within three goals, but the Stags would not allow another tally for the win.

Nelson finished the game as the leading scorer with four goals and two assists.  Kuring had two goals, while Ajemian had two points on a goal and an assist.  Finnerty also had an assist to go along with his goal.

Joe Marra earned his third win for the Stags, minding the net for the entire 60 minutes and making nine saves.  Fairfield caused nine turnovers in the game, led by two from Billy Honovich.  Ajemian added a game-high seven ground balls in the victory.

Fairfield was out shot in the game, 32-19, but connected on over 50 percent of its shot attempts for the win.  Rutgers also held an advantage in ground balls, 29-25, and had fewer turnovers, 27-26.  For the first time this season the Stags did not win a majority of the face-offs, winning 7-19, including 4-8 victories from Andrew Urqhart.

The Stags return to action on Tuesday, March 11, traveling to Bucknell for a 3 p.m. contest.