Box Score Photo Gallery
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Behind big games from redshirt freshman Adam Charalambides (four goals, one assist) and sophomore Jules Heningburg (three goals), Rutgers (2-0) earned a road win, downing Army West Point (1-1) by a 13-11 score on Saturday afternoon. In a fourth quarter marked by back-and-forth action, the visitors scored the last three goals to clinch the victory.
"I'm so proud of this team today as they earned a big win," head coach Brian Brecht said. "Everybody practice the right way this week and that allowed us to prepare to win a big game on the road. It is still very early in the season, but today's win was a huge program win."
RU had eight different goal scorers on the day, as Zack Sikora, Mark Christiano, Casey Rose, Zackary Franckowiak, Jeff George and Scott Bieda each found the back of the net. Max Edelmann made 11 saves between the pipes to earn his second career win.
Rutgers was able to overcome the Black Knights holding a 46-32 advantage in shots and a 37-33 lead in ground balls. The Scarlet Knights forced Army into 14 turnovers and were successful on 23-of-24 clears.
After ten minutes of scoreless action, Rutgers tallied the first two goals of the game. Army countered, and the game was tied at 3-3 after one quarter. The second quarter belonged to the visitors, as Rutgers scored all three goals in that frame to take a 6-3 halftime lead.
Rutgers extended that lead to 7-3 by scoring the first goal of the second half, but Army countered a run of three straight goals. However, Charalambides scored his fourth goal of the day in the final minute of the third quarter, and RU held an 8-6 lead with 15 minutes to play.
The fourth quarter would be fast and furious with scoring, as a total of 10 goals were scored in the final 15 minutes. After Army scored twice to tie the game at 8-8, the squad's went back-and-forth with goals until a 10-10 tie with 6:35 to play. That was when the Black Knights took their first lead of the day at 11-10, with just under six minutes to play.
From that point forward, the Scarlet Knights took control. Heningburg quickly had an answer for RU, tying the score at 11 just 41 seconds late. Then it was the senior captain in Bieda who made his first goal of the day a huge one, tallying for the game-winning score with 3:43 left in the fourth. Charalambides iced the game with a tally with just four ticks of the clock remaining, and the Scarlet Knights improved to 2-0.
"We have been playing Army for 79 years and I am very excited to have won twice in the past three years. It was a great job by Coach Jim Mitchell, coach Jesse Bernhardt and coach Rob Camposa all preseason and this week to get the team ready. Players make plays and we had a lot of Rutgers players making big time plays for us today on the road!"
Rutgers is back home for its next contest, hosting Fairfield on Saturday, Feb. 27. The game will begin at 3 p.m.
Postgame Notes
Charalambides had his second straight game with at least four goals and five points. He now leads Rutgers on the season with 10 goals and 12 points.
Heninburg had three goals in a game for the fourth time in his career.
Freshmen Zackary Franckowiak, Mark Christiano and redshirt freshman Casey Rose scored their first career goals in the contest.
Christiano also had his first career assist.
Goalie Max Edlemann led the team with a career-high six ground balls.
Michael Rexrode had a career-best five ground balls.
Branford Rogers and Alex Bronzo each caused two turnovers.
Zack Sikora (one goal, one assists) tied his career-high with his fourth career multi-point game.
Alex Schoen and Joe Francisco split faceoff duties. Schoen was 4-of-13 and Francisco was 5-of-15.
Rutgers has won two of the last three games against Army, including the last two trips to West Point. It is the 22nd lifetime win against Army (79 games played, second most played series in RU lacrosse history).
Rutgers starters were the same as the opening game: Attack: Jules Heningburg, Scott Bieda, Adam Charalambides, Midfield: Christian Trasolini, Connor Murphy, Jeff George, Defense: Alex Bronzo, Michael Rexrode, Branford Rogers, Goalie: Max Edelmann.
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