NEWARK, DE -- Senior All-American midfielder Jordan Hall (at right) scored two of his game-high three goals in the third period as No. 15 ranked University of Delaware held off Rutgers for a 7-5 non-league men’s lacrosse victory Saturday afternoon at Rullo Stadium.

Hall, who posted his fourth career hat trick and first since 2005, scored twice in the third quarter as the Blue Hens built a 7-3 lead but had to hold off a late Rutgers flurry for the victory. The 2005 Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year from Surrey, British Columbia, Hall has now scored a point in 19 straight games.

Delaware, ranked No. 15 in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Coaches Association poll and No. 14 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll this week, improved to 4-0 for the second straight year and for just the sixth time in school history and extended its school-record home winning streak to 12 straight games.

Dan Deckelbaum added a goal and an assist and Kevin Kaminski, Adam Zuder-Havens, and Alex Moeckel also contributed goals to lead the Blue Hens. All-American Alex Smith, the NCAA leader in faceoff winning percentage the last two seasons, won 14 of 16 faceoffs while goalkeeper Tommy Scherr posted nine saves. After outshooting its opponents 171-64 over the first three games, the Hens held a narrow 39-38 advantage against the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers, which opened its season with a 17-9 win over Dowling earlier this week, fell to 1-1 on the season and lost to Delaware for the second straight year. Colin Checcio scored three of his team’s five goals and also dished out an assist while Chris Doctor scored twice. Goalkeeper Lyle Farrar registered 12 saves.

Deckelbaum and Hall each scored a goal in the first two minutes of play to give the Hens a 2-0 lead and Delaware extended the advantage to 5-1 when Zuder-Havens and Kaminski scored second quarter goals just 33 seconds apart. Checcio scored his first goal of the game with 5:59 left in the second quarter to cut the gap to 5-2 at intermission.

Hall scored his second goal of the game just 1:25 into the second half to give Delaware a 6-2 lead before Checcio tallied again with 7:30 left in the stanza to narrow the deficit to 6-3. Hall then gave the Hens some breathing room with a goal off a feed from Deckelbaum at the 3:57 mark of the third quarter.

Rutgers rallied back in the final quarter to make it close as Doctor scored off an assist from Justin Pennington just 54 seconds into the final stanza and Checcio netted his third goal of the game off another feed from Pennington with 6:54 left to cut the lead to 7-5. Rutgers hurt itself down the stretch as the Scarlet Knights managed just one shot the rest of the game and turned the ball over four times in the final six minutes.

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