PISCATAWAY, N.J. — On Saturday afternoon, the energy surrounding a matchup No. 13 Rutgers and visiting No. 6 Army was felt throughout SHI Stadium.
Despite frigid weather conditions, the teams came with intensity on another level, but it was Army that proved to be too much to handle in a 16-7 win.
Will Coletti, playing in just the second game of his junior season, set Army’s program faceoff record, passing Dan Grabher with his 473rd faceoff win. Coletti now has 487 with nearly two full seasons ahead of him.
The game could be defined as much by Coletti’s draw dominance (17-for-25) as Rutgers’ inability to stop the ball in the first half. Army (2-0) poured in nine first-half goals to take a 9-4 lead into the break. Cardin Stoller (10) and Seamus Fagan (three) combined for 13 saves for Rutgers (2-1).
“Look, Cardin Stoller is our starter, but I didn’t think he was having his best day, and it’s like anything else, if your first basemene is making errors and the shortstop is throwing it over the basemen’s head, you have to make a change to get a spark,” Rutgers head coach Brian Brecht states. “I like our team a lot, and they’re great young men, but we need to be able to execute and make plays in the moment. I give credit to Army; they did a good job today and were certainly the better team.”
Although Rutgers was down at the half, the Scarlet Knights began the game firing. Shane Knobloch accounted for the first two goals, coming 28 seconds apart. Army quickly settled in and didn’t allow another successful offensive possession for seven minutes, with Tim Sommer tying the score at 3 with 6:16 left in the opening quarter.
Overall, Brecht wasn’t pleased with his offense.
“We missed a few bunnies, missed layups on the doorstep,” Brecht said. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t shoot well.”
Army’s offense clicked near the end of the first quarter. With Evan Plunkett (four goals) and Jacob Morin (three) matching Rutgers’ goal total together. Once Army began to settle down and establish its defensive presence, it became extremely difficult for Rutgers to execute — and that led to opportunities for the Black Knights, too.
“In a rivalry game, we didn’t play well against a top-10 team because we couldn’t execute,” Brecht said.
