Second Half Flurry Sends Villanova to 14-9 Men’s Lacrosse Victory over University of Delaware
March 2, 2013
Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell
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VILLANOVA, Pa. -- The University of Delaware rallied back from an early three-goal deficit to tie the score in the third quarter, but host Villanova responded with a 5-1 run to take control and moved on to a 14-9 non-league victory over the Blue Hens in men’s lacrosse action Saturday night at Villanova Stadium.
Despite the loss, Delaware had three multiple-goal scorers with Eric Smith (at right) extending his point-scoring streak to 23 games as he netted three goals for his second hat trick of the season and Nick Diachenko and Sean Finegan (below left) scoring two goals apiece.
Connor McRoy added two assists with Connor Frisina and Chris Colaneri accounting for the other scores for Delaware. Tyler Barbarich edged Villanova’s Thomas Croonquist 14-13 in a battle between two of the nation’s top faceoff specialists.
The Hens used three goalkeepers on the night with Chris Herbert posting 13 saves despite taking the loss.
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Delaware, which counts among its losses this year 9-8 setbacks to defending national champion Loyola and Bucknell, fell to 1-4 on the young season with its third straight setback.
Villanova (1-2), which won its first game of the season and avenged a 13-9 upset loss to the Hens last year in Delaware Stadium, had nine different players find the back of the net as Jack Rice scored three times, John Kluh scored twice and had an assist, and Eric Gartner and Jack Currant each scored twice.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter but the Hens quickly fought back and tied the game on consecutive goals from Frisina, Diachenko, and Smith. The teams then traded goals until the end of the half with Villanova taking a 7-6 lead into the lockerroom on a Rice goal with 59 seconds left in the stanza.
Delaware’s Smith scored his third goal of the game just under two minutes into the second half to knot the score at 7-7, but Villanova got goals from Curran and Rice to push the lead to 9-7.
The Blue Hens narrowed the gap to 9-8 on Colaneri’s first career goal with 7:07 left in the third, but that would be as close as Delaware would get as O’Neil and Gartner closed out the stanza with goals to give Villanova an 11-8 cushion. Delaware never got closer than three goals during the final period.
The Blue Hens will play their first mid-week game of the season this Wednesday as they head to Lafayette for a 4 p.m. faceoff in Easton, Pa.
