No. 17 Delaware Hangs on to Move to 3-0
from press release
NEWARK, Del. -- The No. 17 ranked University of
Delaware men's lacrosse squad led the entire way, but had to
withstand a tense final minute of play to stay unbeaten and post an
8-7 victory over Marist at wind-blown Delaware Stadium Saturday
afternoon.
Junior attackman Eric Smith posted his second straight hat trick,
junior attackman Grant Kaleikau dished out three assists in his
season debut, senior midfielder Nick Elsmo scored twice on extra
man situations, and senior goalkeeper Noah Fossner came up with
several big plays in the final 60 seconds as Delaware stayed
unbeaten and improved to 3-0 for the fifth time in the last eight
seasons and for the first time since the 2008 campaign.
Marist, playing its season opener following a 2010 season that saw
the team go 8-7 and advance to the Metro Atlantic
Athletic Conference semifinals, fell behind 4-0 in the opening
eight minutes but methodically rallied back before falling just
short. The Red Foxes two goals from Corey Zindel while Connor Rice
and Bob von Hoffman each contributed a goal and an assist.
“I was really pleased with the way our guys handled things
when the game got close today,” said Delaware head coach Bob
Shillinglaw, whose team faces a big challenge Tuesday when the Hens
host No. 11 Johns Hopkins (1-0) at Delaware Stadium. “We had
too many turnovers and missed chances at groundballs, but Marist is
a good team and they made more plays. You can’t give
opportunities away in Division I men’s
lacrosse, but fortunately some of our veteran guys stepped up and
made plays down the stretch.”
Anthony Ruiz, John Mills, and Sean Finegan also scored goals for
the Blue Hens while Fossner made nine saves and Dan Cooney won 10
of 18 faceoffs. Kaleikau, who missed the first two games of the
season with an injury, extended his team-leading point-scoring
streak to 15 games.
The game was played during a National Weather Service wind
advisory as a steady 30 mile per hour wind howled throughout the
game.
Delaware jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first eight minutes
of the first stanza but Marist chipped away and eventually pulled
to within a goal when Aedan Herman scored with 7:10 left to play
and von Hoffman tallied at the 4:50 mark.
Neither team scored again, but Marist had its opportunities. The
Red Foxes had a man advantage after a penalty on Delaware’s
John Austin with 1:38 left, but John Marks was wide on a shot with
1:15 left and his rocket 14 seconds laster was saved by
Fossner.
Delaware cleared the ball successfully, but Blue Hen midfielder Dom
Sebastiani had the ball stripped in Marist territory by Kevin
Defranco with 36 seconds left. A shot by von Hoffman with 19
seconds left was wide, but Marist retained possession and called a
timeout. Marist moved
the ball around for a final shot, but Fossner stepped out of the
crease to intercept a pass by Zindel with five seconds left that
clinched the win for the Hens.
The Blue Hens improved to 3-0 all-time vs. Marist after posting
victories of 10-3 in 2003 and 12-6 in 2008.
Delaware jumped out to a 4-0 lead with Smith scoring three minutes
in and Elsmo followed with a man-up goal just 53 seconds later.
Mills and Finegan scored over the next four minutes for the 4-0
lead with 7:10 left.
Marist stormed back, breaking the ice on a goal by Matt Dugan with
6:27 left in the first quarter followed by a Zindel goal two
minutes later and a score by Jack Doherty early in the second
quarter to cut the UD  lead to 4-3.
Delaware responded on goals by Ruiz and Smith before Marist
narrowed the halftime gap to 6-4 on a goal by Rice with just 59
seconds left before the break.
Another man-up goal by Elsmo to start the second half upped the
Delaware lead to three before Zindel and Smith traded goals to give
Delaware an 8-5 advantage heading into the final stanza. Delaware
would not score again, but the Hens managed to hold off the Marist
comeback, halting the Red Foxes after Herman and
von Hoffman scored fourth quarter goals.
“I thought we did well as a team today but we still have a
lot of things to work on,” said Smith, who now leads the Hens
with seven goals on the season. “We have a big one on Tuesday
(vs. Johns Hopkins) to prepare for.”
