Blue Hens Off To Best Start Since 1999 With 13-7 Win Over Hofstra

Saturday, April 13

Newark, DE

2:00 PM

University of Delaware

10-2, 3-0CAA

Hofstra University

4-8, 1-2CAA

HOFSTRA

Delaware

Photo by: Mark Campbell

Blue Hens Off To Best Start Since 1999 With 13-7 Win Over Hofstra

4/13/2019 5:31:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score Photo Gallery

NEWARK, Del. – Since the preseason, the University of Delaware lacrosse team has talked about honoring their seniors and playing for them.

On Saturday, the Blue Hens honored the group of 15 student-athletes in the best way they knew how, with a dominating 13-7 win over Hofstra to improve to 10-2 on the year. It's the best start since 1999 for Delaware.

"We want to show our appreciation for the support we received to put on a day like today that we honored our seniors, as well as honoring our servicemen and women and hosting so many new faces at Delaware Stadium. This was an important game for our program in many ways and we can't show our appreciation enough," head coach Ben DeLuca said. "I can't say enough about how proud I am of this group and how focused they stayed throughout the game even when things might not have gone our way. We are continuing to fight and scrap and that's our mantra."

Coming into the game, Hofstra brought one of the league's most prolific scorers into the contest. On Saturday afternoon, the Delaware defense flexed its muscle, limiting Ryan Tierney to just two goals and holding the Pride scoreless for a stretch of nearly 20 minutes en route to just seven goals allowed.

Junior Matt DeLuca racked up 18 saves on the day, a season-best and the second-highest total of his career. He now sits at 467 career saves, moving into eighth-place all-time in program history. He has tallied double-digit saves in every game this season. Senior Austin Haynes was outstanding, causing two turnovers and sophomore Zach Strassner grabbed five groundballs.

"It really starts with us communicating and really working together. As simple as it sounds, I can't do what I need to do if I don't have them and they can't play the way we want to play if I'm not doing my job," Matt DeLuca said. "We've done a good job of staying focused and when things don't go our way moving on to the next play and doing our best on the next play."

Offensively, junior Charlie Kitchen put on a show, finishing with four goals and five assists to rack up a career-high nine points on the day. He has now scored in 29 straight games and moved into 15^th-place all-time with 148 career points. Freshman Tye Kurtz posted his sixth multi-goal performance of the year with four on the day, while senior Dean DiSimone notched his 12^thcareer hat trick with three goals and an assist.

"We talk about playing unselfishly and I thought we were able to do that today. We have so many guys that can score and it's just a matter of moving the ball and working together to find the best opportunities for us as a group," Kitchen said.

After a slow start for both teams, the Blue Hens got going with goals from Kurtz and DiSimone in a three-minute span to grab a 2-0 lead.

Hofstra got within 3-2, but Delaware added back-to-back goals from Kitchen and Clay Miller to make it a 5-2 game. The Pride would never get within closer than two the rest of the contest.

The Blue Hens delivered the crushing blow in the third quarter forcing five Pride turnovers and going on a four-goal run that pushed its lead to 10-4.

Kitchen's fourth goal of the day and a goal from Kyle Kivinski in the first five minutes of the fourth gave Delaware its biggest lead of the day at 12-5 and the defense would do the job from there, closing out the fourth straight win for the Blue Hens.

Up Next

Delaware is back at home next weekend when they host #11 Towson in a 12 p.m. showdown. The game is part of the 10^thannual Fandemonium event taking place at the Delaware Athletic Complex on South Campus.