The Rensselaer men’s lacrosse team is off to a successful, but at the same time disappointing, 3-2 start to the 2004 campaign. The nationally ranked Red Hawks have done exactly what has been expected of them thus far this year, beating weaker opponents but losing to stronger more talented teams.

Rensselaer destroyed Western New England, Vassar, and St. John Fisher with the combined score of 43-10 as superior skill and execution on the part of RPI proved to be too much for any of these feeble adversaries to overcome.

The Rensselaer attack was simply unstoppable in these three match ups as Nick Culotti tallied 12 points, Luke Ruglis totaled 11, and Adam LoGuidice ranked in nine.

Freshman goalie Ryan Michels and the RPI defense deserve some print as well. The Red Hawk defensemen limited the number of shots on Michels and were quick to clear the ball from the Rensselaer zone.

Michels, despite his inexperience in net at the college level, showed flashes of brilliance making several spectacular saves, and displaying the talent Rensselaer Head Coach Tom Korrie raved about prior to the season’s start.

Korrie was also pleased with his team ability to control the flow of the game throughout the contests which prevented Western New England, Vassar, and St. John Fisher from creating any sort of run against RPI.

However, the story has been much different in the Red Hawks two losses as either the Rensselaer offense or defense failed to show up in the two games.

It was the RPI attack that failed to play up to its potential in the team’s 12-7 loss to Oneonta State as the Red Hawks were held to single digits in the scoring column for the first time all season long.

Rensselaer harassed the Oneonta net all game but the combination of swarming defense and excellent goalkeeping by the Oneonta defense prevented the Red Hawks from putting their normal number on the scoreboard.

The Red Hawks second loss came in a tough match up with the sixth ranked team in the nation, Ithaca.

Under the beautiful Orlando, Fla. sunshine the Bombers’ attack came out smoking.

Ithaca jumped on top early grabbing the lead 9-2 in the first quarter and extended the lead to 12-4 by halftime.

Rensselaer, however, did not throw in the towel as they came out fired up for the second half.

In the third quarter the Red Hawks outscored the Bombers 4-1 and with 6:32 left in the fourth RPI had reduced to the Ithaca lead to 13-12.

The Bombers responded down the stretch as they outscored the Red Hawks 3-1 in the final minutes.

Ruglis scored three goals and handed out five assists in the loss while Culotti added three goals and an assist.

In this struggle between two nationally ranked opponents the high scoring contest Ithaca edged RPI in almost all statistical categories. The Bombers fielded more groundballs than the Red Hawks and successfully completed more clears.

In the tight match up it appeared Michels, although showing an enormous upside, still has much to learn about being a college goaltender as he was inconsistent at times against the Bombers high powered offense.

In all fairness to Michels, who made 18 saves, he received little help on the defensive end as Ithaca was able to fire 34 shots on goal.

Rensselaer will play Stevens Tech. on Thursday at Harkness Field at 7 pm before traveling to Wheaton College on Saturday. The Red Hawks will have little time to mend their defensive and offensive holes as the always competitive and challenging UCAA regular season begins against Hamilton on March 27.