PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Villanova men's lacrosse suffered a close loss in another hard-fought battle this week, falling 8-7 at No. 18/19 Rutgers on Saturday afternoon from SHI Stadium. 

Denis Fargione was on fire between the pipes for Villanova (1-2), tying a career-best with 19 saves and just eight goals allowed in addition to an assist for the Wildcats. 

Luke Raymond and Colin Michener each scored a pair of goals for the 'Cats with Kessy Cox adding a two-point day and other goals coming from Brady Dumont and Gavin Michener.

Jake Melchionni totaled a career-best nine ground balls defensively for the Wildcats while causing three turnovers, Scot Mackie added a pair of CTs and three GBs and George Glomb went 7-of-10 on faceoffs.

Raymond got the game's scoring started at 13:26 of the first quarter off an assist from David Link, but three RU tallies defined the next 8 minutes. G. Michener then put home an unassisted tally to spark a 4-1 VU run in the final five minutes of the quarter. Dumont canned his first of the year off an assist from Quinton Cepiel to follow an RU goal, then C. Michener hit a shot while falling away to tie it before Raymond beat the buzzer to get his team up 5-4 at the end of the period.

Rutgers scored to open the second quarter and Cox followed with an unassisted effort a little over a minute later, but the Scarlet Knights were the only one to score the rest of the frame for a 7-6 halftime lead. 

It was a scoreless third stanza in Piscataway mostly thanks to six saves from Fargione, but the 'Cats offense couldn't beat the Rutgers keeper to knot things up.

The fourth quarter began with a yeoman's effort on Fargione's part as the sophomore made a save and took the clear himself, going over the midline and finding a wide open C. Michener in front of an empty net to make it 7-all. 

It took almost 10 minutes for the Scarlet Knights to answer, but the home side got one to go with 4:21 remaining and multiple late VU attempts went wide to grant Rutgers an 8-7 victory.