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Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse Upsets No. 4 Ohio State 14-6

The Scarlet Knights opened Big Ten play with a statement win

Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics

The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team entered Sunday’s Big Ten opener 0-4 against ranked opponents so far this season. The Scarlet Knights were on the road at no. 4 and undefeated Ohio State, looking for a breakthrough. That’s exactly what happened, as Rutgers took advantage of the opportunity and dominated the entire game, defeating the Buckeyes easily by the final score of 14-6.

After surrendering the first goal of the day, Rutgers responded with six consecutive goals of their own to take control. They led 7-2 at halftime and after Ohio State opened with two straight goals after the break, Rutgers never let it get any closer. They scored five of the last six goals in the game.

Leading the attack for the Scarlet Knights was Kieran Mullins, who scored 4 goals and assisted on 4 others. Adam Charalambides scored 3 goals, while Ryan Gallagher scored twice and had 3 assists.

Rutgers received a standout performance from goalie Max Edelmann, who registered 17 saves for the sixth time this season. He entered the contest leading the nation in saves per game and was outstanding in the net once again on Sunday. He completely neutralized the Buckeyes offense, who took 9 shots more than the Scarlet Knights. It was the lowest scoring total for Ohio State all season, who hadn’t scored less than 11 goals in a game entering Sunday.

Rutgers forced 17 OSU turnovers and cleared 23 of 25 opportunities.

This was a much needed victory for the Scarlet Knights, who moved to 6-4 overall on the season and 1-0 in conference play. The Big Ten is loaded once again this year and also on Sunday, no. 1 Penn State defeated no. 3 Maryland on the road. Next up for Rutgers who are now ranked no. 18 in Monday’s coaches and media polls, take on no. 20 Johns Hopkins, who beat Michigan this past weekend 14-8. The two Big Ten foes will battle Saturday, April 6th at 2 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland and the game will be shown live on ESPNU.

Here are postgame thoughts from head coach Brian Brecht and Rutgers leading scorer Kieran Mullins.