TOWSON, Md. – Senior attackman Jonathan Engelke (Farmingdale H.S./Massapequa, N.Y.) and junior attackman Bill McCutcheon (Chatham H.S./Chatham, N.J.) combined for seven goals and five assists as Towson University (3-6, 2-1) overcame a 6-3 half-time deficit to earn its second win in the last three games, a 10-7 victory over 17th-ranked University of Delaware (7-4, 1-1) in a key Colonial Athletic Association game at Johnny Unitas stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Led by Engelke and McCutcheon, the Tigers used a seven-goal run in the second half to defeat the Blue Hens. McCutcheon tallied three of the goals during the run while Engelke had two goals and three assists.

"That's a nice win for us," Towson Coach Tony Seaman said. "Everybody we play is ranked and it's nice to beat somebody that is ranked. You always think that one game in a season turns you around and hopefully, this is the one that gets us going the right way."

The Blue Hens took a quick 3-0 lead in the opening six minutes. Senior midfielder J.J. Moran (Mountain Lakes H.S./Boonton Township, N.J.) scored just 42 seconds into the game before sophomore midfielder Martin Cahill (The Governor's Academy/Malden, Mass.) upped the Delaware advantage to 2-0 with 11:56 left in the opening stanza by converting a feed from sophomore attackman Curtis Dickson (Riverside H.S./Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada). Just over two minutes later, Dickson scored an unassisted goal to give the Blue Hens a three-goal lead.

Engelke and McCutcheon tallied back-to-back goals in a 90-second span to start the second quarter, cutting the Tigers' deficit to 3-2 with 12:04 remaining in the half. However, the Blue Hens responded with three straight goals, including a pair of markers from junior midfielder Beau Davis (Broadneck H.S./Annapolis, Md.) to extend their cushion to 6-2 with 5:08 remaining. Sophomore Eric Boyle (Annapolis H.S./Annapolis, Md.) scored with 35 seconds left in the half to narrow the margin to 6-3.

Boyle's goal started the Tigers' comeback effort. The Tigers scored three goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter, including two McCutcheon goals, to tie the game at 6-6. With 13:38 remaining in the fourth quarter, Engelke scored off a McCutcheon pass for his second goal of the game and the Tigers' first lead at 7-6. McCutcheon tallied an extra-man goal with 9:45 remaining to extend the advantage to 8-6 before Engelke took a pass from freshman Tim Stratton (Manheim Township H.S./Lititz, Pa.) and scored his 20th goal of the season past senior goalkeeper Tom Scherr (Mount St. Joseph's H.S./Owings Mills, Md.) for a three-goal edge.

Senior attackman Blake Best (Severna Park H.S./Severna Park, Md.) added an extra-man goal with 7:25 remaining off a pass from Engelke to give Towson a 10-6 lead. Senior midfielder Brett Manney (Holy Ghost Prep/Newtown, Pa.) ended the Blue Hens' drought by scoring his first goal of the season with 2:55 left, snapping a streak of 32 minutes, 13 seconds without a goal.

Engelke led the Tigers to the victory with three goals and a career-high four assists while McCutcheon tallied a career-high four goals along with an assist. With his three-goal effort, Engelke became the sixth player in school history to reach 100 career goals. He is the first Towson player to reach that milestone since Matt Clune, who had 125 goals in his college career.

"When you score 100 goals in your career, you have to be pretty good at it," Seaman said of the milestone. "You can only give the ball to him so many times in front of the goal and then, he's going to start to burn you."

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2008-04-05