NEWARK, DE -- Cam Howard (right) scored a career-high five goals, including three in the final nine minutes of play, as the University of Delaware got past Yale for a hard-fought 9-7 men’s lacrosse victory in the Blue Hens’ home opener Saturday afternoon at Rullo Stadium.

Howard, who entered the game having scored three goals in Delaware’s first two games, almost doubled the effort and made them count. The attackman from Wilmington, DE (Tatnall) broke the sixth tie of the game with a goal with 8:23 left to put the Hens up for good at 7 6, added an insurance goal less than four minutes later, and put the game away with an open-net goal with seven seconds left. Howard has now scored a goal in seven straight games since last season.

The Blue Hens, ranked No. 16 in the Inside Lacrosse pre-season poll, improved to 3-0 for the second time in three years and defeated Yale (0-1) for the third time in the last four meetings. The Hens went 11-6 a year ago and advanced to the NCAA Tournament while Yale, coached by former UD assistant Andy Shay, was 7-5 during the 2005 campaign.

Beau Davis and Chris Hichborn each scored a goal and dished out anassist for the Blue Hens while goalkeeper Tommy Scherr stopped 10 shots. Delaware All-American Alex Smith, who led the NCAA in faceoffs a year ago with a 70.9 percent success rate, scored a goal and won 11 of 19 faceoffs against Yale’s Dan Kallaugher, who ranked second a year ago in that category.

Daniel Brillman led the Bulldogs with three goals while Christopher Kempner added two goals and an assist and goalkeeper George Carafides posted 11 saves. Delaware held a 34 26 advantage in shots and a 29-26 edge in groundballs.

The game was hard-fought the entire afternoon as neither team led by more than one goal until the final minutes and the contest featured six ties. Smith scored his first goal of the season with 9:28 left in the first stanza to tie the game at 2-2 and Howard and Davis notched consecutive goals one-minute apart midway through the second period to give Delaware a 4-3 halftime lead.

After Yale tied the game at 4-4 on a goal by Brillman five minutes into the second half, the Hens came back to take the lead as Howard fed Marty Kupprion, his team-high ninth of the season, for a goal with just two seconds left in the stanza.

Yale took the lead in the first two minutes of the final stanza as Kempner scored just 56 seconds in and Brian Belsky tallied 65 seconds later for a 6-5 Bulldog lead. But the Hens rallied with a game-clinching 3-0 run as Hichborn scored his first career goal with 9:18 left to tie the game for the sixth time and Howard followed with two goals 55 seconds apart to give Delaware the lead for good at 8-6 with 4:34 to play.

Yale cut the lead to 8-7 on a goal by David Schechter with 2:05 left, but Howard iced the win with an open-net goal with seven seconds remaining.

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