HEMPSTEAD, NY -- Tournament Most Outstanding Player Athan Iannucci, the nation’s leading goal scorer, scored four times and Mike Unterstein tallied three goals as top seed and No. 2 ranked Hofstra knocked off No. 19 University of Delaware 12-6 in the Colonial Athletic Association men’s lacrosse championship game Saturday night at Shuart Stadium.

The Blue Hens (12-5), who had a three-game winning streak snapped, were stopped in their bid for their first-ever CAA title as they were outshot 44-25 and posted their lowest offensive output since an 11-5 loss to Georgetown back on April 15. Delaware, which had scored 10 or more goals in four straight games, fell behind 7-2 at halftime and good never catch up in falling to Hofstra for the second time this season.

Delaware will now hold out hopes of earning an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The 16-team NCAA field will be announced Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPNews. The Blue Hens advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year and fell to Navy 9-7 in the opening round.

“Hofstra is a great team,” said Delaware head coach Bob Shillinglaw, whose team was trying to capture its first-ever CAA tournament title. “They are very well-balanced and have so many offensive weapons. I would be shocked if they didn’t go far in the NCAA Tournament, maybe to the Final Four. I thought we played hard all night and fought to the end. I thought coming in that we matched up well, but we just didn’t handle the ball as well as we’d like. Hofstra had a lot to do with that.”

Junior Cam Howard scored a team-high four goals, extending his point-scoring streak to 23 games, and Jordan Hall dished out two assists to reach the 100-point mark for his career to lead the Blue Hens. Adam Zuder-Havens, Dan Deckelbaum, and Brett Manney scored the other Blue Hen goals and Tommy Scherr (at right) recorded a career-high 19 saves.

Howard, Scherr, and Alex Smith, who won 12 of 21 faceoffs and broke his own school single season record with 261 faceoff wins, were each named to the all-tournament team. The Hens had advanced to the final thanks to a 13-12 win over No. 12 ranked and three time defending CAA champion Towson Wednesday night.

Hofstra (16-1) extended its winning streak to 16 games and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Iannucci led the way with his four goals while Tim Treubig added two goals and an assist, John Keysor dished out two assists, and Chris Unterstein, Tom Dooley, and Ryan Lucas also added goals. Chris Unterstein, the national point scoring leader, was named this year’s CAA Player of the Year while Dooley was selected as Rookie of the Year. Goalkeeper Matt Southard, who was also named to the all tournament team, stopped 10 shots.

Delaware struck first when Zuder-Havens, who scored four goals in the first meeting with Hofstra, tallied just 2:11 into the game. But that would be the Hens’ last lead as Treubig, Mike Unterstein, and Iannucci followed with goals to take a 3-1 lead into the second stanza. After a Dooley goal upped the lead to 4-1, the Hens cut the lead to 4-2 when Howard scored off a feed from Hall with 8:34 left in the half. However, the Pride took a 7-2 lead into the half as Chris and Mike Unterstein each scored and Iannucci added another.

Hofstra extended the lead to 10-3 heading into the final quarter before the Hens rallied. Brett Manney scored his second goal of the season with 12:54 left to play and Howard added back-to-back goals at the 9:12 and 7:24 mark to narrow the lead to 10-6. But after Howard’s goal at 9:12, Hofstra came right back on a goal by Iannucci with 7:17 left to put out the fire.

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