NAVY SINKS HENS

BY JAMIE AMATO

Sports Editor

After knocking off conference rival Vermont and nationally ranked Butler last week, the Delaware men's lacrosse team looked to continue its winning ways against No. 17 Navy on Saturday.

The Hens were looking to jump out to their best start since 1979, however poor decisions and a lack of execution by the Hens (3-2) allowed the Midshipmen (4-2) to defeat Delaware 18-7 at Rip Miller Field.

Navy was led by junior attacker Jamie O'Leary, who scored two of his game-high five goals in the first period. The Midshipmen jumped out to a 6-0 lead after only one period of play en route to beating the Hens for the 14th time in 15 meetings.

"We never really got anything going," Delaware coach Bob Shillinglaw said. "There is not an 18-7 difference between these two programs. We just didn't play up to our potential."

The game was originally scheduled to be a home game for Delaware, but due to poor field conditions, was moved to Navy.

The Hens were led by junior midfielders Jim Bruder and Dennis DeBusschere, who combined to score five goals in the loss. Bruder has now scored at least one goal in 24 straight games, the third-longest streak in school history.

"We should have beaten them," Bruder said. "This is by far the toughest loss we've had to take."

In addition to being outshot 52-38, Delaware was also held scoreless by the Midshipmen for the first 17:09.

"The slow start killed us," Bruder said. "We didn't come out as ready as we should have."

After falling behind 11-2 at halftime, the Hens offense began to come alive in the second half. However, every time Delaware generated any sort of scoring attack, the Midshipmen responded immediately.

After DeBusschere netted his first goal of the game to put the Hens on the scoreboard with 12:51 left in the second quarter, Navy responded with five consecutive goals of its own.

And when Delaware cut the Midshipmen's lead to 12-5 with 9:34 remaining in the third quarter, Navy followed with three straight goals that all but put the game out of reach for the Hens.

"Our players played hard and were excited to play," Shillinglaw said. "But we had a complete loss of focus as the game went on.

"We need to learn from this and make sure something like this never happens again."

Delaware returns to action tomorrow afternoon at 3 when the Hens host Mount St. Mary's at Delaware Mini-Stadium.