LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After a one game homestead the Bellarmine Knights hit the road again as they take on the Jacksonville Dolphins at noon on Wednesday.
This game will mark the first of two meetings between the Knights and Dolphins in Jacksonville this season. Bellarmine is scheduled to face Jacksonville on the road again in their second to last game of the regular season.
Southern Conference foes, the Knights and Dolphins are very familiar with each other. The all-time series is currently tied at 3 with Jacksonville taking the last three contests. Due to the 2020 season getting cut short, their last meeting was in 2019. The Dolphins won that contest 11-8. Wednesday's meeting will count as a non-conference game.
Bellarmine (1-1) comes into this midweek game off the heels of a 12-7 loss against Utah at home on Saturday.
Through two contests, Brayden Brown and Kyle Playsted have led the Knights' offense with four points (2G/2A) each. James Whiteford has also tallied three points (1G/2A). Landon Trout led the Knights' offense last game, scoring his first two goals of the season.
Jon Robbins and Eric Rubak have been the leaders of a strong close defense unit through the Bellarmine's first two games. Robbins has collected six ground balls and caused eight caused turnovers while Rubak has scooped up nine ground balls and caused four turnovers.
Ian Reilly has been the starter in goal for the Knights in both games thus far. However, JC Higginbotham replaced Reilly during the second quarter of the Knights' battle with Utah and recorded nine saves with a .563% save percentage.
The Knights have struggled at the faceoff dot through the first two games of the season, going 8-for-41 as a team. However, J.T. Simonton found some success in his first appearance of the year on Saturday, going 5-for-12 against the Utes. Matt Ury and Josh Healy also saw action at the dot.
This will be the season opener for the Jacksonville Dolphins. They are coming off a shortened 2020 season in which they went 3-3.
Jacksonville returns four of their top five scorers from last season, including Evan Tyler and Jack Dolan who put up 26 (16G/10A) and 20 (7G13A) points, respectively. Jacob Greiner tallied 19 points (15G/4A) and Jeremy Winston had 16 (10G/6A).
Defensively, the Dolphins return their top three poles from last season in Dixon Smith, Colin Hinton, and Jordan Young. Smith led the team in caused turnovers (10) and also scooped up 12 ground balls. Hinton recorded eight caused turnovers and five ground balls while Young had four caused turnovers and three ground balls.
Alex Giovinco and Nathan Kapp both return at the faceoff dot for the Dolphins after being their top two options last season, Giovinco went 31-for-69 (.449%) and Kapp went 41-for-93 (.441%).
Following their matchup against the Dolphins, Bellarmine will have another midweek road contest next Tuesday against North Carolina.
