NEWARK, DE -- Senior All-American Alex Smith (at right) made his final regular season home game at Rullo Stadium a memorable one Saturday night as he scored a career-high three goals, dished out one assist, and won 19 of 24 faceoffs to lead No. 18 University of Delaware to a 12-9 Colonial Athletic Association men’s lacrosse victory over Sacred Heart before a season-high crowd of 1,400 fans.

Smith, a two-time All-American from Timonium, MD (Boy’s Latin High School) who has led the NCAA in faceoffs each of the last three seasons and holds the NCAA record for career faceoffs won and taken, starred on Senior Night as he led Delaware (8-5, 3-2 CAA) to its second straight win and helped the Blue Hens clinch a spot in the CAA semifinals to be held May 2 at either Drexel or Towson. He had scored just one goal all season entering the game and just 14 for his career before posting his first career hat trick.

Sacred Heart, which got two goals and two assists from Michael Collins and two goals form Peter Greco, lost its fifth straight game and fell to 2-8 (1-4 CAA). Bobby Karl added a goal and an assist and goalkeeper Ricardo Vargas recorded 16 saves.

Delaware dominated the game statistically, outshooting the Pioneers 51-31, winning 19 of 24 faceoffs, holding a 42-34 advantage in groundballs, and committing 10 less turnovers, but couldn’t put Sacred Heart away until the closing minutes.

Freshman Curtis Dickson, last week’s CAA Rookie of the Week, added two goals and two assists for Delaware while Vincent Giordano contributed two goals and an assist, and Dan Deckelbaum, Adam Zuder-Havens, Kyle Rotelli, Kevin Kaminski, and Rob Smith all scored individual goals. Jordan Hall dished out an assist to extend his consecutive point-scoring streak to 26 games, the eighth longest streak in the nation.

Delaware seniors Alex Smith, Rob Smith, Zuder-Havens, Deckelbaum, Hall, defensemen Brian Calabrese and Steve Woltman, and attackman Marty Kupprion all played their final regular season home games as the Blue Hens honored their eight seniors as part of Senior Night festivities.

The Blue Hens jumped out to a 3-1 lead on goals by Giordano, Rotelli, and Deckelbaum in the first quarter, but Sacred Heart got a goal from Karl with just 12 seconds left in the opening period and Tony Tanzi scored with 6:43 left in the second quarter to tie the game at 3-3.

But Delaware scored the final four goals of the half, all in the final 6:31, to take a 7-3 lead at the break. Giordano took a feed from Alex Smith and scored with 6:31 left to begin the run and Smith followed with his first goal of the night just six seconds later when he won the face-off, picked up the groundball, and sprinted to the cage, firing a shot past Vargas. Rob Smith and Kaminski added goals in the final four minutes to up the lead to four at the break.

Delaware built its biggest lead of the night at 8-3 when Alex Smith again scored right after a faceoff win as he tallied his second goal just five seconds into the second half. Sacred Heart’s Collins and Delaware’s Dickson traded goals to keep the UD lead at five at 9-4, but the Pioneers scored the final two goals of the stanza as Collins and Jon Flood connected and then tallied the first of the final quarter on a goal by Evan Morgan with 11:35 left to play to pull SHU to within 9-7.

But Delaware got some breathing room as Zuder-Havens scored just eight seconds later and Dickson and Alex Smith scored over the next two minutes to increase the lead to 12-7. Sacred Heart pulled to within 12-9 on goals by Greco and Nicholas Russo, but couldn’t manage a goal after the 4:49 mark.

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