by Daniel Gruber Storied rivalry matches up for top-20 matchup
For the first time in 10 years, Delaware stadium hosted a top-20 men’s lacrosse matchup, with the #14 Towson Tigers facing off against the #20 ranked Delaware Blue Hens on Saturday 4/20. To make things even more interesting, the rivalry between these teams has been ongoing for over fifty years and is always a battle.
With the game close throughout, the Tigers ended up doing just enough, escaping the rivalry with a 14-12 over UD, pushing their record to 8-4, and snapping the Blue Hens 4-game winning streak.
“I thought our adrenaline really carried us and got us going early on, but after the half, I thought it played against us and forced into those mistakes which Towson took advantage of.” Head coach Ben Deluca said.
Scoring four goals apiece, seniors Dean DiSimone and Joe Eisele led the Blue Hens offensively, with Junior Charlie Kitchen adding another goal, extending his consecutive goal streak to a school record 30 straight games.
Defensively, the Hens were led by Austin Haynes who caused 2 turnovers and gave himself a total of 70 for his career. Goalie Matt Deluca added 8 saves in the cage for the hens.
Delaware got off to a blazing start, capturing 5 early goals and jumping out to an early 5-2 lead. Towson then responded very quickly early in the 2nd, taking advantage of penalties and scoring four goals in under a minute, to jump into a 6-5 lead.
The game went back and forth for the remainder of the first half, with Towson scoring 2 goals in the final minutes to take momentum and a 8-7 lead into the locker room.
Towson would take advantage of that momentum early in the second half, scoring 5 straight quick goals to jump out to a 13-7 lead, their biggest of the contest. The Hens then answered back, adding 4 straight goals themselves, to bring the score back to a close 13-11.
Towson’s defense then buckled down, holding the Hens to 1 goal for the remainder of the match, and ultimately capturing the 14-12 victory.
Delaware returns to action on Friday 4/26 for their regular season finale, traveling to UMass to face off against the defending CAA champions at 5pm.