Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, DE -- Brown scored four of its first seven goals on extra-man opportunities and goalkeeper Jordan Burke turned back 16 University of Delaware shots as the Bears upset the 14th-ranked Blue Hens 9-6 in men’s lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Rullo Stadium.

Delaware, which lost despite outshooting Brown 51-31 and holding advantages in faceoffs (10-7), groundballs (33-21), and turnovers (11-18), had a two-game win streak snapped and fell to 7-3 on the season despite a four-point effort from sophomore Martin Cahill (at right).

Cahill tallied three goals and dished out an assist and Curtis Dickson and Cam Howard each scored once and dished out an assist, but Delaware went nearly 40 minutes without a goal as Brown built a big lead and held on for the win. Dickson, who entered the game with an NCAA-leading 30 goals, extended his goal-scoring streak to 18 games, but did not get on the board until the final minute of the game.

Brown, which entered the game as the nation’s No. 6 ranked defense, allowing just 6.17 goals per game, showed why as Burke, the national leader in save percentage at 71.1 percent, was brilliant in the nets all day long, facing 51 shots and posting 16 saves.

The Bears (6-2) won their fifth straight game as Kyle Hollingsworth scored twice and dished out four assists and Reade Seligmann and Andrew Feinberg each tallied twice. Brown took advantage of nine Delaware penalties as the Bears scored on four of nine extra-man opportunities, converting man-up goals on four of its first seven goals on the way to a 7-1 lead.

Delaware, which had allowed just six total goals in consecutive wins over Villanova (8-4) and Lehigh (9-2) last week, made a spirited comeback in the fourth quarter as the Blue Hens scored five goals in the period, including four in the last eight minutes, before falling short.

Hollingsworth opened the scoring with a goal just three minutes in, but Delaware answered on a goal by Cahill with 4:59 left in the period to tie things up. But that would be the end of Delaware’s offense until the final quarter as Brown then held the Blue Hens without a goal for an agonizing span of 39:17 as UD fell behind 7-1. Delaware was unsuccessful on 22 straight shots during the drought.

Feinberg, and Hollingsworth followed with man-up goals to give Brown a 4-1 halftime lead and Seligmann added an extra-man goal with 10:27 left in the third quarter to up the lead to 6-1. Feinberg then opened the final quarter with a man-up goal just 50 seconds in to swell the Brown lead to 7-1.

Delaware rallied as Cahill scored with 10:42 left and then fed Nick LoManto for an extra man goal just under three minutes later to narrow the gap to 7-3. Cahill scored again with 3:19 left to cut the lead to 8-4 and Dickson and Howard each scored in the final minute, but it wasn’t enough.

The game marked the first meeting between the two schools in men’s lacrosse since 1964. Delaware will travel to Towson next Saturday while Brown will travel to Yale on Friday.

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