When the Rutgers men’s lacrosse team opened its season on Feb. 2 by rolling to a 14-8 victory over visiting Lafayette, no one among the Scarlet Knights was surprised.

Rutgers attackman Adam Charalambides did not shock anyone either that day by dropping four goals and five points on the Leopards.

But as the big lefty finisher from Georgetown, Ontario celebrated the win with his teammates, Charalambides felt an emotional rush that forced him to tear up with joy.

Finally, following two seasons deprived of playing the game that is his passion, following preseason knee injuries — and surgeries to repair a torn ACL — that had ended two straight seasons before they had begun, and nearly three years after scoring 43 goals to earn Freshman of the Year honors, Charalambides was back in his element.

“I had this moment after the Lafayette game [thinking] ‘Is this real?’” Charalambides recalls. “It was overwhelming, how happy I was to be back out there competing with the boys again.”

Charalambrides’ return to the Rutgers lineup in 2019 has been very real indeed. On a young, inconsistent Scarlet Knights (7-6, 2-2 Big Ten) team that beat Michigan last weekend to put them square in the conference tournament race, Rutgers has leaned on its battle-scarred, 23-year-old redshirt sophomore.

And through 13 games, Charalambides has delivered like the young gun of old.

He has scored a team-high 43 goals, good for seventh-best in Division I. He has added 10 assists and has shot 39.1 percent, by far a team-best. Eight times, he has produced at least a hat trick (and six straight games). Six times he has scored at least four goals, including a season-high of six goals in wins over Syracuse and Michigan.

“Most people, including myself, might have thrown in the towel, especially after Adam went down that second time [in January 2018],” says redshirt senior midfielder Casey Rose. “You wondered if he had another comeback left in him.

“But he stayed laser-focused and kept his mind and eyes on the prize,” Rose adds. “I was so impressed with his discipline, the way he grinded in the training room [through both injury rehabilitations]. He’s a true leader and he’s still our elite shooter.”

It’s been a long road back for Charalambides, who has been tested in ways he never could have foreseen when he committed to Rutgers in the fall of 2013 as a late-blooming senior during his only year at the Hill Academy.

After redshirting in Piscataway as a true freshman, a year during which Charalambides had knee surgery to repair meniscus damage and a chipped bone — he links those problems to a hockey collision with a goal post about five years earlier — Charalambides did not anticipate setting a school record in 2016 for goals scored by a first-year player.

He opened his collegiate career by becoming the first Rutgers player since 1984 to score six goals in his debut. He went on to be named Big Ten Freshman of the Week seven times. He nearly led the Scarlet Knights to their first NCAA tournament since 2004 with a scorching performance in his first Big Ten tournament at Johns Hopkins’ historic Homewood Field in Baltimore.

There, Charalambides and then-sophomore attackman Jules Heningburg, looking like one of the better 1-2 punches in the sport already, sparked Rutgers to a 14-12 victory over the Blue Jays in the Big Ten semifinals. Charalambides left a five-goal mark on Hopkins that night.

Two days later, his three goals weren’t enough to overtake top-seeded Maryland, which pulled away to a 14-8, conference title victory and would not be stopped until the NCAA final against North Carolina.

What might have been for Rutgers over the next two seasons, had Charalambides not taken a bad step in preseason practice the following January, heard a pop in his left knee as he hit the ground and swallowed the first major injury of his life? What might have been, had it not happened a year later, after a midfield collision during a riding drill, this time to his right knee?

“It would have been a hell of a ride and a story,” says Heningburg, who would play his final two years without Charalambides — whom he lived with off-campus both years — and with current star junior attackman Kieran Mullins, currently one of the game’s top feeders.

“We were like brothers from our first fall together, the chemistry we had,” adds Heningburg, who recalls how eagerly he anticipated being reunited with Charalambides on the field as a senior after his teammate successfully had rehabilitated his left knee and was off to a solid preseason a year ago.

Then the right knee buckled. And just like that, the young star was done again.

“I knew right away he’d torn his [other] ACL, just by the look of frustration on his face as he put his hands on his head sitting on the ground,” Heningburg says. “But [Charalambides] never talked about giving up. It was more like, ‘Here we go again, back to the drawing board’ [with another rehab]. He’s got an unwavering work ethic.”

“It’s tough to tell a player to cheer up and hang in there [again],” says Rutgers head coach Brian Brecht. “Adam worked so hard to get himself back on the field the first time. I don’t blame him for thinking ‘Why me?’ But I also think this whole experience is making him the leader and competitor he is today. He’s learned so much. He’s been forced to see the game differently, like a coach. He’s a peer mentor.”

“When you’re on crutches and your teammates and housemates are bringing you food and what-not, you realize how dependent you are on others,” Charalambides says. “You’ve got to be thankful.”

An easy pick for a team captain role this year, Charalambides says his two-year ordeal taught him so much — about resilience, humility, refusing to surrender to self-pity, and turning bad circumstances in his favor.

Giving up the game was never really an option, although the thought did cross Charalambides’ mind briefly.

“When it happened a second time, some doubt crept in. Am I going to be able to play again? Will I have a roster spot?” he says. “But Coach Brecht motivated me and gave me mental security. He told me I was going to rehab this and come back fine and be a leader of this team. He said we’re going to have a great career together. Focus on getting better.”

Charalambides, who has a head for business, is taking care of academic business. He has earned a Bachelor’s degree in supply chain and marketing science, and is pursuing a Master’s in urban planning and policy development. He expects to own two degrees when he graduates in 2021. He intends to focus on real estate development and pro lacrosse.

He also is on track to be the school’s all-time leading goal scorer.

“I have personal goals and team goals that I came to Rutgers to achieve,” adds Charalambides, who excelled at hockey as a youngster and didn’t pick up a stick until age 10 — mainly because many hockey teammates played the box game in the summer.

“Adam was a natural athlete,” says Debra Shaw, his mother. “He got used to getting beat up playing hockey and lacrosse, and lacrosse became his huge passion.”

Charalambides developed nicely with the Halton Hills Bulldogs, progressing from Junior C to B level by 2014, when he led the Bulldogs to an Eastern Conference box title with a team-high 151 points (71 goals, 80 assists). After three years of playing field lacrosse at Christ the King High School, Charlambides showed well at an all-star camp. He ended up at the prestigious Hill Academy with coach Brodie Merrill.

Bellarmine and UMBC had showed passing interest in him. By the time he attended Hill Academy, Rutgers was on the radar. All it took was one visit to the Piscataway, N.J. campus to convince Charalambides to go south.

“Coming from a small hometown, I wanted to experience a bigger school,” he says.

And what an unusual, exhilarating, torturous, lesson-filled, uplifting journey it has been.

After two knee surgeries and two grueling rehab stints, Charalambides remains a work in physical progress. He has been more an off-ball finisher this year, but his ability to dodge and change direction continues to improve, as he gains more trust in those healing knees.

Next year, Charalambides will gladly adopt the “Grandpa” nickname currently owned by redshirt senior goalie Max Edelman, as the Scarlet Knights’ oldest player.

In the meantime, Charalambides is savoring every goal, every win, every practice, every lesson learned during two lost seasons that in no way count as personal losses anymore.

“When I was hurt, I learned to be an encouraging, positive energy guy in the locker room,” he says. “If I could bring some happy charisma while I’m on my second ACL, what’s your excuse for having a down day in practice?

“Being hurt was about re-evaluating my priorities,” he adds. “My No. 1 passion was gone. Besides that, who was I as an individual? I focused on that, I got healthy again, and I’ve never loved my teammates or competition more.”