NEWARK, DE -- Senior Adam Zuder-Havens (at right) scored three of his career-high tying four goals in the final nine minutes of the game as No. 15 University of Delaware broke away in the final minutes to post a 9-5 non-league men’s lacrosse victory over Lehigh Wednesday afternoon at Rullo Stadium.

Delaware (2-0), ranked No. 15 in this week’s Nike/Inside Lacrosse Top 20 poll thanks to a season-opening 23-6 win over Saint Joseph’s Feb. 10, won its 10th straight home game since last season to break a school record that had stood since 1961-62, and improved to 2-0 for the fourth straight season. The game was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday but was postponed due to snow and ice on the Rullo Stadium turf.

The Hens, who edged Lehigh 10-9 last season in Bethlehem, PA, continued their dominance over the Mountain Hawks as Blue Hens downed Lehigh for the 23rd straight time since the 1971 season.

Zuder-Havens (Corning East/Corning, NY), a second-year transfer from Herkimer Junior College, matched his career-high of four goals set last year in a 12-10 loss at Hofstra. Delaware sophomore Chris Hichborn added two goals and an assist vs. Lehigh while Vincent Giordano contributed a goal and an assist. Alex Smith won 13 of 18 faceoffs while goalkeeper Tommy Scherr posted 11 saves.

Lehigh (0-1), which had its opener vs. Marist Feb. 13 postponed due to snow, was playing its first game of the season. Michael Zurfluh, Jeff Wiener, Alec Hooff, Stephen Marino, and Dan Honeywell each scored a goal for the Mountain Hawks while goalkeeper Eric Spirko recorded 18 saves. Delaware outshot Lehigh by a 51-29 margin.

Delaware jumped out to 3-0 lead after the first quarter as Zuder-Havens, Jordan Hall, and freshman Martin Cahill each tallied goals but Lehigh came back to narrow the deficit to 3-2 at the half as Honeywell and Zurfluh scored early second quarter goals.

Lehigh tied the game for the first time at 3-3 on a goal by Marino just 1:13 into the second half, but the Hens answered less than two minutes later to take the lead for good at 4-3 on a Giordano goal. The Hens then took a 5-3 lead into the final quarter when Hichborn scored his first goal of the game with just 41 seconds left in the stanza.

The Mountains Hawks pulled to within 5-4 five minutes into the final quarter on a goal by Wiener, but Zuder-Havens answered one minute later to up the lead to 6-4. After Lehigh cut the Blue Hen lead to just one goal one more time on a goal by Hoof with 4:36 left, Zuder-Havens helped put the game away as he scored two unanswered goals within 64 seconds of each other to increase the lead to 8-5 with 2:47 left. Hichborn added some insurance for the Hens with his second goal of the contest with 1:37 left.

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