Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

BETHLEHEM, PA -- Senior Cam Howard accounted for seven points and senior Tom Scherr (at right) recorded his second straight stellar performance in goal as the No. 14 ranked University of Delaware shut down Lehigh for a 9-2 non-league men’s lacrosse victory Tuesday night at the Ulrich Lacrosse Complex.

Delaware (7-2) held Lehigh scoreless over the final 37 minutes of the game on the way to its second straight victory and continued its dominance over the Mountain Hawks. The Hens have now downed Lehigh 24 straight times since the 1972 season.

Howard scored a season-high four goals and dished out three assists, NCAA goal leader Curtis Dickson netted three goals, and Vincent Giordano scored once and dished out a career-high four assists to pace the offense while Scherr was spectacular in the nets, facing 42 shots, allowing just two goals, and matched a career-high 19 saves.

The two goals were the lowest total allowed by the Blue Hens since a 16-2 victory over Wagner Feb. 28, 2006. Following an 8-4 win over Villanova Saturday, the Hens have now allowed just six goals over the last two games, the lowest amount given up in consecutive games at UD since opening the 2005 campaign with wins of 18-3 over Saint Joseph’s and 12-2 over Lehigh.

Lehigh opened the scoring with 6:37 left in the opening quarter when Max Dahlem scored his 14th goal of the season off a feed from Stuart Baxter, but Delaware took control from there as Dickson, Martin Cahill, and Howard each tallied a goal in the stanza to give the Hens a 3-1 advantage.

Dickson, who upped his season goal total to 30, extended his goal-scoring streak to 18 games, and recorded his eighth career hat trick, tallied his second goal of the game three minutes into the second quarter to up the lead to 4-1 before the Mountain Hawks came back to cut the margin to 4-2 on a goal by Brian Bienemann with 7:20 left in the half.

But that would be the last offense Lehigh would muster the rest of the game as Scherr and the Delaware defense was flawless the rest of the way. Lehigh got off 22 shots in the second half, but Scherr turned back eight of them to post his 32nd career win. The win extended a remarkable turnaround for the UD defense, which had allowed 37 goals in consecutive losses to Georgetown (18-10) and Stony Brook (19-16) before lowering the total to just six in the last two games.

Giordano and Howard each scored a goal late in the first half to send Delaware into halftime up 6-2 and Howard and Dickson netted goals in the third period to push the margin to 8-2. Howard, who posted his seventh career hat trick, then capped the scoring with a man-up tally - the Hens’ second of the half - off a Giordano feed with 11:55 left to play.

Delaware will return to action Saturday when the Hens host Brown at 1 p.m. at Rullo Stadium.

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