Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell

PISCATAWAY, NJ -- Senior Vincent Giordano (top right) and sophomore Martin Cahill each scored two of their three goals as part of a pivotal 6-0 run in the second half as No. 12 University of Delaware rallied to down host and No. 18 Rutgers 10-8 in a Top 20 men’s college lacrosse battle Saturday afternoon at Yurcak Field.

The Blue Hens, off to a 4-0 start for the third straight year, rallied from a 6-4 deficit with 13:52 left in the third quarter by scoring six straight goals and hanging on to snap the Scarlet Knights’ six-game home winning streak.

Cahill notched his third hat trick in four games this season with three goals, Giordano also tallied three goals, Cam Howard scored twice and dished out an assists, and Curtis Dickson added a goal and an assist for the Blue Hens, who defeated Rutgers for the third straight time.

Dickson extended his goal-scoring streak to 12 straight games and upped his team-leading total to 13 on the season while Howard moved into 10th place on the all-time UD points list with 155, passing Mike Marone who had 153 in 1979-82.

Rutgers (1-1), which opened its season with a decisive win over UMBC last week, got five goals and an assist from Justin Pennington while Gerhard Buehning had a goal and dished out two assists.

Tom Scherr (bottom right) posted the win in the nets for Delaware with 11 saves, notching his 29th career victory, while Carter Bloor was impressive on faceoffs, winning 11 of 15 tries on the day. The victory gave Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw his 268th win all-time.

Howard scored twice in the opening half to stake the Blue Hens to a slim 3-2 lead at the break, and Delaware went up 4-2 just three minutes into the second half off a feed from Moran. But Rutgers reeled off four straight goals, three by Pennington, to take the 6-4 with 13:52 remaining in the third frame.

Delaware took off from there. Cahill’s goal just 49 seconds later cut the lead to one and Dickson tallied his only goal with 9:20 left in the quarter to tie things at 6-6. D.J. Widlake scored with 8:29 left to put the Hens up for good and Giordano scored two goals and Cahill one in a span of 1:22 midway through the final quarter to give UD the 10-6 lead. Rutgers finally snapped a nearly 24-minute scoring drought when Pennington scored his fifth goal with 4:59, but it wasn’t enough to spark a comeback.

The Blue Hens will return to action next Saturday when they host the University of Albany at 1 p.m. at Rullo Stadium. Albany defeated the Blue Hens 13-7 a year ago and also advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Boxscore