12/12/2020 football Edit

Walk-on kicker Valentino Ambrosio nails two crunch time field goals for RU

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

This time last year, Valentino Ambrosio had just wrapped up his sophomore season for the Rutgers men’s soccer team after transferring from Fairleigh Dickinson.

On Saturday, though, Ambrosio nailed two clutch field goals to help lead the Rutgers football team to a 27-24 overtime win over Maryland on the road.

Ambrosio, who missed a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter wide right, but he bounced back and made a 39-yarder as time expired in the fourth to tie the game and send it to the extra period where he made the eventual game-winning 42-yard field goal.

“After the first one I had to just kind of move on. That's all I really can do is move on to the next kick and think about my next kick. Leading up to that I was naturally nervous but I was confident,” Ambrosio said. “I put the first one out of my head and I just went out there and had the opportunity and my teammates gave me the opportunity to get out there and I did what I had to do. The kick in overtime was the same thing. I had a bunch of adrenaline and had confidence from tying it up and went out there and hit a good ball. My teammates gave me the opportunity to even be in that position so hats off to them.”

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After quarterback Artur Sitkowski, who came in for injured starter Noah Vedral, ran for a 3-yard gain to move a tad closer, Ambrosio and the field goal unit had to rush onto the field and get ready for the kick. Rutgers had no timeouts and no way to stop the clock.

Calmly, Ambrosio made the kick.

That's something that we do at least once a week,” Ambrosio said. “It's a mayday field goal. It was like the practice field. It was like the same thing.”

“We practice that,” head coach Greg Schiano said. “We wanted to make sure that not only did we get the kickoff but we didn't want to leave them any time. We didn't want to have to kick the ball off. I thought the entire unit did a very good job. We ran out there, we let the clock go down to where we tell them and, and we snapped the ball and they kicked it. We practice that a lot every week. I'm glad they executed it. We certainly needed it.”

Justin Davidovicz was the team’s kicker the last two years. This season, Guy Fava started out as the placekicker, then Ambrosio earned the job.

Ambrosio has had a winding journey to the college gridiron. He played soccer and football for Cranford High School as a junior and senior. He was at Roselle Park High School his first two years. He also played club soccer for the New York Red Bulls Academy U15/16 team before playing for Cedar Stars Academy-Monmouth.

He then went to FDU, appearing in 13 games with one start before playing for the Scarlet Knights last year in 18 games with 12 starts.

“It's really a long story,” Ambrosio said. “Basically I was on the soccer team here and was a kicker in high school, and thought about it a little bit when we returned from winter break. I found myself in the position to have the opportunity to walk on the team and kind of just happened from there.”

So far this year, Ambrosio is 7-of-9 field goal attempts with a long of 42 yards which he’s now converted twice. Ambrosio has also made 14-of-15 PAT.

“He is a very talented kicker. He's got a very explosive leg ,” Schiano said. “He and I have a love/hate relationship. We tell it like it is. When he missed the first one I told why he missed it. But he short corrected it, but they were all three good hits. The one kind of pulled. But I'm really proud of him. Here's a guy that during COVID and during the quarantine and wanted to come out for the team. I said sure as long as your soccer coach is okay with it, and we checked with the coach and he was okay. Little did I know we'd be our starting kicker and our placekicker.”

Ambrosio said that Schiano gets him ready for moments similar to what occurred against Maryland, and that the two have a unique bond.

“He's gotten me very mentally tough. He's really tested me and challenged me in different situations during practice like the situation today with the clock running down,” Ambrosio said. “He's a great coach and I think we have a great relationship.”