PISCATAWAY, N.J. (March 1, 2008) – Sophomore Justin Pennington (Flemington, N.J.) netted a career-high five goals, however it wasn't enough as a dominant second half propelled Delaware to a 10-8 victory over Rutgers in a top 20 men's lacrosse game at the RU Turf Field Saturday afternoon.

No. 18 Rutgers (1-1), which had its six-game home winning streak snapped, led by as many as two in the second half, but six consecutive goals by Delaware would give the Blue Hens the lead for good.

In addition to Pennington's five goals, sophomore Gerhard Buehning (Essex Falls, N.J.), freshman Kory Kelly (Princeton, N.J.) and sophomore Tad Stanwick (Baltimore, Md.) each chipped in a score. Buehning led the team for the second straight game with two assists.

No. 12 Delaware, which improves to 4-0 for the third straight season, was led by Martin Cahill and Vincent Giordano, who each tallied three goals. The Blue Hens are 9-1 in their last 10 games away from Newark, with the lone loss coming in the 2007 NCAA semifinals to eventual national champion Johns Hopkins.

RU fell behind early, 2-0, as Giordano and Cam Howard posted scores for the Blue Hens before Kelly got the Scarlet Knights on the board with his fourth goal of the season at the 4:12 mark in the first quarter. The teams would trade goals back-and-forth until a 3-0 RU run ended the first half. The spurt was caped with a Buehning tally with 3:23 remaining, putting the Scarlet Knights up 5-4 at the intermission.

Rutgers would push its run to 4-0 and take the lead, 6-4, on Pennington's fourth goal of the day just over a minute into the third quarter. However, Delaware held RU scoreless for nearly 24 minutes and posted six straight goals to grab a 10-6 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Five of UD's six goals in that span came in just under two minutes.

The Scarlet Knights would make a late charge, scoring the game's final two goals, but RU could get no closer than two the remainder of the game.

Rutgers will continue its three-game home stand and begin ECAC league play Saturday, March 8, when the Scarlet Knights take on Fairfield. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. at the RU Turf Field.

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PISCATAWAY, NJ -- Senior Vincent Giordano 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 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.

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2008-03-01