PISCATAWAY, N.J. - No. 7 Rutgers men's lacrosse earned a 17-11 win against Johns Hopkins on Saturday night at SHI Stadium, sweeping the regular season series against the Blue Jays. 7th-year senior Adam Charalambides celebrated his Senior Day with a statement, scoring six goals and adding two assists to lead Rutgers in the victory. Fellow senior attackmen Connor Kirst (four goals, two assists) and Kieran Mullins (two goals two assists) added to the ledger in the victory. 

Rutgers also recieved two goals from Ross Scott, and tallies from David Sprock, Brennan Kammish and Cole Daninger. The Scarlet Knights outshot JHU 44-33 and led 30-22 in ground balls. In goal, Colin Kirst made 15 saves. 

"I'm very proud of this team, it has been a special group," head coach Brian Brecht said. "With what this senior class has been able to accomplish throughout their careers, their leadership on and off the field, I couldn't be happier for them to earn a great conference win at home on Senior Day. To play well, have some of our seniors step up huge was great. Between seniors on the attack in Adam Charalambides, Kieran Mullins and Connor Kirst, on defense Jaryd Jean-Felix and Garrett Bullett and Colin Kirst in the goal, our rope unit with Zackary Franckowiak and Brennan Kamish, we had seniors playing really well to win on Senior Day and I'm happy for all of them. I was very pleased. We had a great week of practice, and when we practice well, we tend to have good success on the weekends. We had a huge performance in the second half and in the fourth quarter especially and what they were able to accomplish was great to see"

The game went back-and-forth throughout the early going. RU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and later extended that advantage to 7-4. At halftime, Rutgers led 8-6. 

Johns Hopkins had a stretch of momentum to tie the game at 11-11 with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter. From there, it was all Scarlet Knights, as Rutgers finished the game on a 6-0 run, holding the visitors without a goal for the final 21 minutes of the contest. Adam Charalambides took matters into his own hands with a personal three-goal run, scoring three times in a 1:45 span at the end of the third quarter.

JHU had a big chance late in the fourth quarter, as Rutgers was called for three penalties on one play, resulting in a six-on-three advantage. The Scarlet Knights defense held tall, with Colin Kirst making a key save, and Rutgers continued to dominated in the final quarter, finishing out the six-goal margin of victory.

"Senior night is just a little bit more special," Adam Charalambides said. "Everyone was amped. The boys played hard, you could see that energy. Each week, the process stays the same and we keep getting better, our chemistry is growing and that's been huge coming down the stretch. I'm so thankful for my time here and the guys that have been a part of it."

Rutgers has one remaining regular season game. That will come next Sunday at Michigan, a noon start on ESPNU. 

"It's great to win on Senior Day, and even better it coming against Hopkins," Kieran Mullins said. "We started hitting our shots down the stretch, we were clicking and shooting well, it's great when we are playing well together and clicking like that, it's hard to stop. We'll keep building, one game at a time from here."

"We have a really special team this year, we have a lot of big seniors that have been with this team a while," Garrett Bullett explained. "That was a great team win tonight. We closed them out, made some good corrections and halftime and things fell into place. It was nice hearing the roar of the crowd tonight, it felt like regular times pre-COVID, that was a special moment for me. I've been here a long time and that was a great win. 

Postgame Notes

• The game was Senior Day as well as Alumni Appreciation Day. The Scarlet Knights honored 16 seniors in a postgame ceremony. In addition, RU recognized its alumni at halftime, honoring the 35th anniversary of the 1986 NCAA Tournament team, the 30th anniversary of the 1991 NCAA Tournament team, the 20th anniversary reunion of the 2001 team, and the decade of the 1960s. 
• Rutgers also held a moment of silence pregame for two letterwinners that recently passed away, General Robert E. Kelley and Paul Joinnides. Over 30 members of the Kelley family were in attendance, as Rutgers presented General Kelley's brother with a framed jersey at halftime. 

• Rutgers swept the home-and-home regular season series with Johns Hopkins. It was the third Big Ten team this year that RU swept home-and-home (joining Penn State and Ohio State). 
• The Scarlet Knights improved to 30-8 at home since the start of the 2016 season.
• Rutgers earned its eighth win over Johns Hopkins in 42 lifetime meetings with the Blue Jays. Since joining the Big Ten in 2015, the teams have split the eight meetings, 4-4. 
• Adam Charalambides moved past Mike Rinck for sole possesion of fourth all-time at Rutgers in goals with 140 for his career.