No. 15 Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse Upended By No. 16 Lehigh 13-10

Tuesday night was a disappointing defeat for the no. 15 Rutgers men’s lacrosse team, falling at home to no. 16 Lehigh. The Scarlet Knights led 8-5 midway through the third quarter, but the Mountain Hawks finished the game on a 8-2 run to win by the final score of 13-10. Rutgers led 10-9 with just over 9 minutes to play, but Lehigh scores four straight goals in the final 6 minutes of the game.

Rutgers outshot Lehigh 45-34, had a +10 turnover margin and +3 on ground balls. However, visitors won 16 of 27 faceoffs and caught fire late in the game.

Lehigh was led by Alex Tumminello with 4 goals, while Lucas Spence had 2 goals and 2 assists. Mickey Fitzpatrick scored 2 goals, in addition to Tommy Schelling, who scored the game winning goal and assisted on the final score of the game. Goalie James Spence made 17 saves in the victory.

Ryan Gallagher had a career high 4 goals to lead Rutgers, while Kieran Mullins scored 2 goals and had 3 assists. Adam Charalambides scored 2 goals as well. Alex Schoen was 10 of 18 on faceoffs and produced a team high 7 ground balls. Garrett Bullett, who was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Monday tied his career high with four ground balls. Kyle Pless produced a career high of four forced turnovers. After being named Big Ten Co-Specialist of the Week, goalie Max Edelmann made 11 saves.

Rutgers (4-3) will head on the road Saturday to face no. 13 Syracuse (3-2) at 1 p.m. ET in what is a huge non-conference game for both teams. After playing Hofstra the following weekend, the Scarlet Knights will open Big Ten play at no. 8 Ohio State on Sunday, March 31st.