As dawn broke yesterday over Boston University, the school’s nationally ranked hockey team found itself further tainted with scandal as a star defenseman was arrested for allegedly raping a female student on the riverside campus.

Max Nicastro, 21, was taken into custody at 6:30 a.m. by university police and transported to Boston Police District 14 in Brighton, where he was booked on the rape charge. He was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail pending his arraignment tomorrow in Brighton District Court.

Nicastro is the second BU hockey player in the last 10 weeks to face sexual assault allegations involving a female student. The team’s leading scorer, Corey Trivino, was arrested Dec. 11 on numerous charges after he allegedly broke into a woman’s room at night.

Trivino, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was thrown off the hockey team. Nicastro has been suspended from the team as school officials investigate the incident amid questions about whether the two cases are merely troubling coincidences or symptomatic of a larger problem in the hockey program.

Coach Jack Parker and athletic director Mike Lynch were not available to comment, according to a school spokesman. Dean of students Ken Elmore said it would be unfair to suggest the cases stemmed from any “concerted activity’’ involving the hockey team.

Other than Nicastro and Trivino, fewer than five of BU’s 33,000 students this academic year have faced charges related to sexual assault, according to a school official.

Elmore cited “the tragedy for the students involved’’ and said, “My concern on a much larger level is that we have students on this campus who don’t know how to treat each other. We have students who have been in situations where they are sexually assaulting others. I want to make sure we engage all our students in thinking about and understanding the serious nature of such allegations.’’

Nicastro’s father, Mark, declined to comment when reached at the family’s home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Max Nicastro, a third-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2008, was arrested hours after scoring a goal in his team’s 4-2 loss to UMass-Lowell Saturday night at BU’s Agganis Arena.

Nicastro lives a block from the arena in a BU residence hall on Buick Street in Allston, according to school officials. Authorities would not identify the location of the alleged rape, other than to say it occurred on BU’s sprawling Charles River Campus, which covers 131 acres along Commonwealth Avenue west of Kenmore Square.

Boston Police assisted in booking and jailing Nicastro, but few other details of the case were available. The Suffolk County district attorney’s office is investigating the allegations and is expected to present additional information at Nicastro’s arraignment tomorrow.