Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. - Powered by six goals from Casey Howard and Rachel Schexnayder, the No. 17 University of Delaware field hockey team trumped Towson, 6-5, during a Colonial Athletic Association battle on Friday evening at Rullo Stadium.

During the game, Howard (at right) and Schexnayder became the first ever teammates to post hat-tricks in a single-game. With her performance, Howard also tied Michelle Rosenbaum’s all-time single-season program record for goals (20) and points (44).

Delaware (11-4, 5-1 CAA) struck first less than 10 minutes into the game as Schexnayder took a feed from Kimmy Schlezes and tickled the twine to get UD on the scoreboard.

In a flash, that lead was doubled as the Blue Hens wasted no time getting back on the attack with Schlezes right in the center of it again. She uncorked a shot from the top of the circle, which Towson goalkeeper Jamie Dowling stopped but was unable to contain. Standing in perfect position for the rebound, Howard corralled the loose ball and pushed it home.

That goal was Howard’s 47th of her career, moving her past head coach Carol Miller into sole possession of third place on Delaware’s all-time goals list.

Towson (5-9, 0-6) halved the lead immediately, taking advantage of a corner. Kim Schnell fed stopper Angie Brewer, who set up a blast from Christina Boarman. The goal came less than two minutes after the Howard strike, capping off a torrid back-and-forth pace.

Later in the half, Schexnayder was in the perfect position to put in another goal, standing right on the doorstep creating a perfect target for a Howard pass. Howard unfurled a long laser pass right to the stick of the senior midfielder, who put it home to boost the cushion to 3-1.

Howard closed the scoring in the first half at 31:57 off of a penalty corner that was stopped by Missy Woodie and fed in by Rae Everson. The goal was the seventh of the year by the lethal corner combination.

Howard picked up where she left off to start the second half, tallying her third hat-trick of the year on an outstanding individual effort. Howard collected a Schexnayder rebound and blasted it in the top half of the goal.

With that score, she became only the second Blue Hen to ever have three hat-tricks in a single season. Howard also became the first Hen to ever notch a hat-trick against a CAA opponent.

Towson got back into the game in the second half as Blythe Mackie scored off a corner to cut the deficit to three.

Schexnayder bumped the lead back up to four almost immediately as she took a feed from Schlezes to grab her first career hat-trick.

Halfway through the second stanza, Towson forward JoEllen Sumego brought the game back into contention after she tallied back-to-back goals less than a minute apart halfway. Later, Mackie notched her second goal of the game at 69:08 to bring the Tigers back within one, but the last ditch effort was too little, too late.

The Blue Hens will return to action next Friday as they host conference foe Hofstra at 7 p.m. at Rullo Stadium.