No. 5 Men's Lacrosse Pulls Away In Double-Digit Win

Saturday, March 6

Piscataway, N.J.

12 PM

Rutgers University

3-0, 3-0Big Ten

University of Michigan

0-3, 0-3Big Ten

Michigan

Photo by: Mike Lawrence

No. 5 Men's Lacrosse Pulls Away In Double-Digit Win

Mar 06 | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score RU vs. U-M Box Score Postgame Highlights

Scarlet Knights outscore Michigan 10-5 in second half to remain unbeaten

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 5 Rutgers men's lacrosse used an offensive outburst in the second half to pull away from Michigan for the 22-12 win on Saturday at SHI Stadium. The Scarlet Knights remain unbeaten and move to 3-0 on the season.

Rutgers tied its season high with 22 goals against the Wolverines, matching its performance from a week ago against Ohio State. It marked the most goals in a game since 2010 and the Scarlet Knights were able to accomplish the feat in back-to-back games.

"Our offense continues to really play well together," said Rutgers men's lacrosse head coach Brian Brecht. "Whether it's transition, six-on-six, zone, they are very mature and they capitalized on the opportunities that they had today."

The offense saw six different players score multiple goals, led by Adam Charalambides and Connor Kirst. The top two goal scorers entering the game, the pair scored four goals apiece, while Charalambides assisted on five of the Scarlet Knights' 22 goals. It was a career-high in points and assists for Charalambides, who tied Jules Heningburg for the seventh most goals all-time at RU.

Kieran Mullins was another catalyst for the offense, adding five assists of his own to go along with two goals. Mullins moved past Tom Sweeney for seventh place all-time at RU in points.

Rutgers led wire-to-wire, taking an early 2-0 lead; however Michigan tied the score at 3-3 and remained within one score at 6-5. The Scarlet Knights added four straight to pull ahead 10-5 and maintained that five-goal advantage at halftime, leading the Wolverines 12-7 at the break.

In the second half, Rutgers broke open the game behind a 7-1 run to start the third quarter. The offensive push was aided by a stout defensive effort that limited Michigan to five goals after halftime.

Brecht pointed to the play of defenseman Jaryd Jean-Felix and goalkeeper Colin Kirst in helping the Scarlet Knights neutralize the Michigan attack. Kirst earned the win in goal, posting 19 saves. Jean-Felix was part of a defensive effort that limited the Wolverine's top two goal scorers entering the game to just one goal each on the afternoon. Rutgers forced 17 Michigan turnovers.

"I thought our [defense] played great, really all the credit goes to them," said Kirst. "I thought coach [Jimmy] Ryan had a great game plan in place this week and our [defense] was dedicated to it. I thought it was an all-around great effort and great defensive opportunity for us."

"We had a great week of practice and preparation," said Jean-Felix. "The scout guys gave us a great look all week and then we came out on game day and just executed. That's the plan every week and we did that this week."

Rutgers will return to action on Saturday, March 13 with a road game against No. 3 Maryland.

"You don't need to have losses to learn lessons," said Brecht. "So hopefully this is a great opportunity for us to learn some lessons from the game and then obviously button things up. We have to go on the road against a very talented Maryland team this coming week."