GAMEDAY (Feb. 16, 2020): The Engineers make their season debut when they host Scranton in a non-league contest at East Campus Stadium (1pm).
ALL-TIME VS. SCRANTON: The Engineers and Royals have never faced one another.
DAY LATER: The game was originally scheduled for February 15 but was pushed back a day due to the cold temperature.
RECENT SEASON STARTERS: The Engineers are 5-6 in their last 11 season openers, including 2-2 against Keene State over the past four years ... All five of the wins have come at East Campus Stadium against four different opponents (Keene State, Montclair State, Manhattanville and Mount Saint Mary) ... The losses have been to Keene (2x), Montclair (3x) and Endicott.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: RPI has a 48-man roster that features five seniors, 15 juniors, 7 sophomore and 11 freshmen.
TWO OF THREE: Rensselaer returns two of its top three point producers in
Owen Putman (48 goals, 20 assists) and
Cooper Urban (39 goals, 21 assists) ... Putman, a senior, was first on the team in goals and second in points (68), while Urban, a freshman, was second in goals and third in points (60).
2020 CAPTAINS: The Engineers will be led on the field by seniors
Aidan Denecke,
Kevin Frega and
Owen Putman ... Denecke, a midfielder, has played 34 games in his career ... Frega has played in 35 contests and Putman has 44 games played.
PRE-SEASON ALL-AMERICA: Rensselaer's
Owen Putman is among those recognized by Inside Lacrosse as Division III Preseason All-Americans ... An attack, he is coming off a season in which he led the Engineers with 48 goals, along with 20 assists, in 16 games, all starts ... His 68 points ranked second, while he was first in shots (134) and shots on goal (81).
NEW STAFF: The Engineers welcome
Henrik Dion to the staff ... He played four seasons of defense with the Engineers, graduating in 2019.
RPI IN 2019: Last season, Rensselaer had a 12-5 overall record with a 5-3 conference mark ... The Engineers played in the Liberty League Tournament semifinals, losing in at Union ... RPI, which started the season at 6-0 and 9-1, was nationally-ranked for the latter half of the campaign.
PRESEASON POLL: In a vote by the league's head coaches, RIT received eight first-place votes for 64 points to rank first in the 2020 Liberty League Preseason Poll ... Union was second with 54 points and a first-place vote ... St. Lawrence (52) is third, followed by Ithaca (42) and Rensselaer (37) ... Clarkson is sixth (29), followed by Vassar (23), Skidmore (15) and Bard (8).
KALKSTEIN AT FREERIDE WORLDS: Freshman midfielder
Ely Kalkstein spent late January in Kappl, Austria, competing in the 2020 Freeride Junior World Championship ... He was one of 32 worldwide (10 from the U.S.) to participate.
MYERS CHOSEN TO NATIONAL TEAM: Freshman midfielder
Dan Myers has been selected to represent Puerto Rico in the 2020 World Lacrosse Men's Under-19 World Championship to be held in July in Ireland ... The tournament will take place in Limerick from July 9-18.
SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN: The Engineers play 16 total games in 2020 with six at at East Campus Stadium, nine away and one at a neutral site ... Four contests are in February, seven are in March and five come in April ... Seven Saturdays will be spent playing with five other games on Wednesdays and two on Sundays ... There will be one on a Tuesday and one on a Friday ... The first six contests are non-league.
SCRANTON IN 2019: The Royals were 10-8 last season with a 5-1 record in the Landmark Conference ... They averaged 12.50 goals per game and won six of eight away games ... Michael Elefonte led the team in scoring with 56 points (38 goals, 18 assists).
