Delaware Blue Hens 2023

[Henpecked]

This is the reason everyone loves Hopkins fans. So gracious in victory. Always giving credit to competitors.

Good luck in the Big10.

Delaware will worry about winning the CAA.

[tech37]

This is the reason everyone loves Hopkins fans. So gracious in victory. Always giving credit to competitors.

Good luck in the Big10.

Delaware will worry about winning the CAA.

FTR... I've never rooted for Hopkins in my life... never will

I'm probably spouting off here because the inept Hens remind me so much of Cuse. Great stick handlers on O with coaches forgetting there's an entire field to be concerned with, not just 6 v 6.

[10stone5]

My two cents...I thought that Delaware looked very good against Hopkins. I'm guessing that they won't let up in trying to keep improving.

Seriously? How bout their inability to clear?

I think Delaware is a very fun team to watch. Robinson, Kurtz and Grant are all individually worth the price of admission. That said, I thought they weren't very good at all against Hop. Got dominated at F/O, terrible on GBs (which is really surprising), couldn't clear. Take away the 7 goals in 7 shots run and/or a really good performance from Kilkeary, and that game isn't particularly close.

I like them too. But to be up 10-5 (if I recall correctly) in second half, and with all the momentum, to then not be able to advance the ball beyond midfield (and as you point out, not find other possession answers)... sheesh

Hens are still a work in progress.
It looks to me as if DeLuca has a long view on things.

DeLuca is in his 5th full year of a re-build, so if they get to
the conference finals and if they can win the Automatic Qualifier,
that would be two straight NCAAs for a team that hadn’t been to
the NCAAs in ten years.
Hens don’t have enough of the “4-5 star” type recruits yet -
they have Robinson, Grant, Kurtz, and Kilkeary plays at an
All American level, but they need more of those.
DeLuca seems as if his focus is recruiting and not nearly so
much on the transfer side of things.

He’s got a couple 4 star potential recruits coming in next year from Hill Academy, and the 2024 class has potential 4 star recruits where DeLuca is directly (supposedly) competing for these recruits against the top tier teams.

[Henpecked]

This is the reason everyone loves Hopkins fans. So gracious in victory. Always giving credit to competitors.

Good luck in the Big10.

Delaware will worry about winning the CAA.

FTR... I've never rooted for Hopkins in my life... never will

I'm probably spouting off here because the inept Hens remind me so much of Cuse. Great stick handlers on O with coaches forgetting there's an entire field to be concerned with, not just 6 v 6.

FTR, Sundays game was an anomaly as far as clears. Hens were over 90% before Sunday. They’re at 89% now. Just a terrible clearing day. Very careless.

[HopFan16]

FWIW, re: clearing, Hopkins unveiled a 10-man ride that they have not really used yet this season. Probably caught the Hens by surprise. I doubt they were preparing to see that

[nyjay]

FTR, Sundays game was an anomaly as far as clears. Hens were over 90% before Sunday. They’re at 89% now. Just a terrible clearing day. Very careless.

My guess is that Sunday was an anomaly for a lot of reasons. I wasn't trying to be an a-hole by starting this, I just don't think your guys played all that well (Kilkeary and Kurtz excepted). Wouldn't want to play them again. A lot, a lot of talent on that team.

[10stone5]

I, for one, would like to see the Hens continue this series.

They’ll need to boost up their schedule so top tier teams like
Hopkins are more attracted to scheduling the Hens, they’re in
the 35-40 range SoS currently.

But … On to CAA play - where of course teams know the Hens
intimately, not a lot of margin for error here.

[Henpecked]

This Saturday the 7-3 Delaware Blue Hens host the Fairfield Stags at noon. UD has a five-game winning streak against Fairfield that goes back to Coach DeLuca’s first season with the Hens. The Stags, currently 3-7, and 1-2 in the CAA, are coming into the Newark a team desperate for a CAA victory following back-to-back losses to Towson and Drexel.

Fairfield is a very young team that scores 11 goals a game while giving up 12.4. They have lost seven games by an average of five goals against middling competition. This young team has a pretty strong on-ball defense but can be guilty of ball watching at times. The games I have seen them play they give up a lot of assisted goals to wide-open players inside. Freshman goalie Will Snyder is very good but has only a .470 save percentage because of the Stag defense propensity for losing track of players off ball. Sophomore close defenseman Zach Antoniou is coming off an All-CAA rookie season and is a force for the Stags with 18 GBs and 12CTs. He is complemented on defense by freshman Eli Adams with 21GBs and 8CTs. Fairfield has a pair of Loyola Blakefield grads at SSDM, Soph Matt Rice and Junior Ryan Lancaster, who are both physical on-ball defenders as well.

The Stags offense is prone to turnovers, averaging 17.3 per game, but has some outstanding snipers. Giant sophomore Jack McKenna (6’ 6” 245lbs) has 26 goals on 36% shooting. Most of his success comes from finding open space inside 15 yards and getting off lethal pissmissiles. Redshirt Junior Bryce Ford leads the offense with 24 goals and 14 assists, shooting at a 35% success rate and has 24 turnovers. Freshman Will Consoli and senior Max Papporazzi have identical stats at 18 goals and 7 assists, but Consoli has 21 turnovers to Papporazzi’s 18.

At the faceoff dot, Dylan Smith takes the majority of draws and has a 49% success rate while overall the team wins just 46% of the time.

The Hens are coming off two non-contests against Hofstra and Hampton when they scored at will while facing very limited offensive performances by both teams. That will most likely not be the case against Fairfield, who can put up numbers on offense at times. I would assume that Owen Grant will shadow McKenna while Tate Wasson will attempt to keep Bryce Ford in check at X. I would expect the faceoff situation to be about even. It is great that Logan Premtaj is back and playing well, winning 60% of his draws in two games. But more importantly, the onus does not fall solely on Roland Hockenberry, who is having a terrific year (52%).

I would expect that Coach Baxter will have a plan to attempt to stop Tye Kurtz. So I think Kurtz might become more of a feeder in this game with middies running free across the crease. That holds true for JP Ward as well. He should put up some big assist numbers in this game. Mike Robinson will have ample opportunities to score as he continues to find open space all over the field. He will look to improve his shooting numbers (21%) coming off his injury. Look for Jason Kolar, Clay Miller and Nick Jessen to roam free for shots as well.

I think that UD is the toughest offense that Fairfield will face this year, so if the Hens play up to par, they should get between 13-16 goals. Hopefully, the defense can shut down the Stag big guns and come away with a convincing win. Can’t wait.

Side note: With one point Tye Kurtz moves to all time points leader for Hens (252) and with three goals he passes Curtis Dickson for most goals in a career 163.

[10stone5]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

[Henpecked]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

Yet he’s never been 1st team all-CAA despite being the best offensive player in the league last year.

Lots of anti Canadian sentiment amongst CAA coaches

[nyjay]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

Yet he’s never been 1st team all-CAA despite being the best offensive player in the league last year.

Lots of anti Canadian sentiment amongst CAA coaches

Does the Delaware/Canadian connection come from JGJr randomly ending up in Newark or is there another reason for it? Great thing to have, but it seems pretty random, at least to those of us who don't know the background.

[10stone5]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

Yet he’s never been 1st team all-CAA despite being the best offensive player in the league last year.

Lots of anti Canadian sentiment amongst CAA coaches

Does the Delaware/Canadian connection come from JGJr randomly ending up in Newark or is there another reason for it? Great thing to have, but it seems pretty random, at least to those of us who don't know the background.

What I’ve read is that Andy Shay gets the credit for getting Jr to Newark - as well as perhaps Sr having played for the old Phila Wings.

[Henpecked]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

Yet he’s never been 1st team all-CAA despite being the best offensive player in the league last year.

Lots of anti Canadian sentiment amongst CAA coaches

Does the Delaware/Canadian connection come from JGJr randomly ending up in Newark or is there another reason for it? Great thing to have, but it seems pretty random, at least to those of us who don't know the background.

Andy Shay is actually responsible for bringing John Grant Jr to UD in 1998. He coached Grant at an upstate NY community college squad before being hired by Shillinglaw as a Hen assistant. Shay convinced Shills to use his only scholarship to bring in the crafty Canadian.

Since that time UD has had many talented Canucks including Jordan Hall, Adam Zuder-Havens, Scottie Evans, Curtis Dickson, Nick Diachenko, Dan Keane, Owen Grant, Tye Kurtz, Reed Kurtz and the Acchione twins. But you’re right. Grant opened up the Canadian pipeline.

[10stone5]

250-260 career points, when you get to those numbers you’re talking about the all-timers.
And Kurtz got to 250 in about the number of games you’d play in a normal 4 year career.
160+ goals puts Kurtz in the top tier of goal scorers as well.

Yet he’s never been 1st team all-CAA despite being the best offensive player in the league last year.

Lots of anti Canadian sentiment amongst CAA coaches

Does the Delaware/Canadian connection come from JGJr randomly ending up in Newark or is there another reason for it? Great thing to have, but it seems pretty random, at least to those of us who don't know the background.

Andy Shay is actually responsible for bringing John Grant Jr to UD in 1998. He coached Grant at an upstate NY community college squad before being hired by Shillinglaw as a Hen assistant. Shay convinced Shills to use his only scholarship to bring in the crafty Canadian.

Since that time UD has had many talented Canucks including Jordan Hall, Adam Zuder-Havens, Scottie Evans, Curtis Dickson, Nick Diachenko, Dan Keane, Owen Grant, Tye Kurtz, Reed Kurtz and the Acchione twins. But you’re right. Grant opened up the Canadian pipeline.

And again,
I’d say the Wings had an influence on recruiting Canadians - late 80s through the mid-2000s they’d play to capacity and their games were carried on cable. Wings brought in all manner of “local” college players including a couple Hens - Voelker, Bates, Nadelen all played for the Wings, the Gaits.
That must have influenced Delaware and other conference schools to bring in Canadian talent.

[10stone5]

Tye Kurtz gets the UD records

__________________

kurtz.jpg (60.96 KiB) Viewed 981 times

[Henpecked]

Hens with a ten-goal trouncing of the Fairfield Stags 17-7. Kurtz broke the all-time points and goals record today when he scored 4 goals and added an assist.

Hens are in a good position to host the CAA tournament as they move to 8-3 and 4-0 in conference today. Gotta take care of Stony Brook next week on Strong Island. I'm sure that will be a tough game. Can't wait.

[Henpecked]

It has been awhile since the Hens have played Stony Brook and a lot has changed since that time. The two teams last met in 2012 when SB extended its winning streak over UD to six games with a 7-6 victory in Newark. The previous 4 losses to SB were close games highlighted by the otherworldly skills of Seawolves all-time great Kevin Crowley. He dominated the Hens in those four games from ’08 to ‘11. It was particularly impressive because the ’10 and ’11 UD teams went on to the NCAAs losing to both North Carolina and Duke by just one goal.

Anyway, that is all ancient history. This weekend the Hens travel to Long Island to play a critical game for both teams. The Hens have assured themselves a place in the CAA tournament but are hoping to continue their in-conference winning streak in order to host the tournament for the first time in a LONG time.

What can we expect from SBU
Stony Brook is coming off two one-goal games against Towson (W 13-12) and an OT thriller last weekend in West Philly against Drexel (L15-14). SBU is a talented offensive squad led by All-American candidate Dylan Pallonetti (37g 17a), the Sr. transfer from Maryland. Pallonetti is a physical dodger who will regularly beat his defender and draw multiple slides. He can get off shots from nearly anywhere with great accuracy (31% shooter) but is equally adept and finding teammates cutting behind slides. I would think that Owen Grant will be in charge of trying to stop Pallonetti. The challenge for the Hens will be the off-ball guys are all pretty crafty, led by two Canadians, Noah Armitage (20g 14a) and Matt Anderson (21g 7a). Both are terrific shooters and passers as well. The Seawolves are pretty good at getting defenses to shift and each of these guys are happy to keep rotating the ball to find the open shot. In many ways they are very similar to the Hens on the offensive side of the field. The offense is strengthened this year by the addition of two Long Island transfers, Blake Behlen (LIU) and Jon Huber (St. John’s). Both are excellent off-ball snipers and will need to be accounted for.

The defense is led by senior Michael Sabella (29GBs and 14CTs) the 5’ 8” 210 lbs fireplug who has been the Seawolves shut-down guy for years. But the guy who really stands out on this team is senior LSM Christian Lowd who is a terrific athlete who plays with wreckless abandon. He leads the team with 21 CTs and is very strong off the ground. Lowd is a danger in transition and has two goals and a couple assists as well. The two faceoff guys for SBU (Renz Conlon and Declan Mitchell) are pretty good. But their combined winning percentage (48%) is really helped by aggressive wing play that evens the field for them somewhat. On a bad note, SBU gets a ton of penalties with this aggressive style of play. On a positive note, they are pretty excellent on man-down defense (Letting up just 7 goals in 51 penalties or 14%). But they will be playing with fire getting too many penalties against the Hens who are excellent man-up (50%). The Seawolves have a rangy goalie in Jamison MacLachlan from Syracuse. The 6’3” netminder has a .508 save percentage and can be streaky at times, both good and bad streaky.

What to expect from UD
Delaware has won its eight games this year by an average of 10 goals. The four victories in the CAA have been won by an average of 12 goals (+48 goal differential). The UD defense is giving up just 4.2 goals a game in the CAA and 8.5 overall. The Hens man-down defense leads the nation at 11.5%. So they are pretty good defensively.

I believe that the Hens can win this road game by playing smart defense and keeping the Seawolves to below their average of 13 goals. I would expect the Hens offense to get to 13-14 goals (they average 15 goals a game) by limiting turnovers and pushing transition offense. It will also be a huge battle at the faceoff circle. Logan Premtaj and Roland Hockenberry not only have to win the draws, they also have to avoid turnovers that are caused by the super-aggressive wing play of SBU. UD is not used to playing close games this year and have lost all three that were close. I would expect a close game with the Hens finally pulling out a 2-3 goal victory.

Long Island trips can be a drag. But the Hens have already crossed the Verrazano Bridge and sat in traffic on the Long Island Depressway once this year. And they came away with a convincing victory over Hofstra. With the win they can avoid another trip to Long Island by eliminating the Seawolves from contention for hosting the CAA tourney. Can’t wait. GoHens!

[Henpecked]

Hens (10-3, 6-0 CAA) locked up their third straight regular season CAA title yesterday with a home 18-13 win over Drexel. Since taking over as head coach in ‘18, DeLuca is 53-27 overall and 24-10 in the CAA. The Team might not always win, but they’re always prepared.

Hens played a very aggressive defense early in this game and caused a ton of turnovers. Owen Grant had 5 CTs in the first half alone. However, some of these early slides and double teams actually created offense for Drexel. They left shooters wide open for time and room shots on Matt Kilkeary, who had a surprisingly mediocre game for UD with just 8 saves on the day.

The remaining game with Towson is a meaningless exhibition, so I hope they will rest some starters and try to get healthy for the CAA tournament that they will be hosting. The Hens have absolutely no shot at an At-large bid so winning next week makes no difference.

Can’t wait for the tournament. Delaware Stadium should have a great crowd for these games.

[10stone5]

Hens are starting to approach that Tiger’s stretch of years, Nadelen’s first several years at the helm.

Hens with 3 straight greater than 10 win seasons.

Its something similar here, Hens are so clearly better than the other CAA teams - like Towson during those Nadelen early years.

I recall one NCAA, Tigers got stuck with a play in - I told that team, watch out for the Tigers, they are stacked - they steamrolled the play-in team and then beat the #2 seed.

Hens have separated themselves, and if the bracketologists are correct and the Hens don’t get upset, they’ll do well against Duke, they can match up against that team in a win or go home game, DeLuca plans games well in those situations. Hens would have the advantage of a lot of 5th year seniors.

[Henpecked]

For the second straight year, the Hens will host the play-in game to the NCAA tournament. This year UD will face MAAC champ Marist, who won eight of its last nine games after a 2-6 start to their season.

The Hens have played Marist six times and have won all six matchups including last year’s lopsided 18-9 victory in Newark. A major caveat to last year’s Hen victory - The Red Foxes were missing star Jamison Embury after he blew out his knee against Rutgers earlier in the season.

What to expect from the Red Foxes
Marist has a very experienced team including seven graduate students and 11 seniors. The offense is led by off-ball sharpshooter Jojo Pirreca (45g 20a) and the aforementioned Embury (39g 24a), a physical dodger from Yorktown. Joshua Balcarcel (21g 12a) is a tiny jitterbug attackman/middie who is coming off two straight games with hat tricks. The offense averages 13.6 goals a game including a 29 goal bombing of Quinnipiac last week. They have faced two teams in the top twenty early in the season and lost both, 20-8 to Rutgers and 13-5 to Jacksonville.

The Marist defense holds its opponents to 12.1 goals a game and is led by Blue Hen transfer Aiden McCaffrey who has 30 caused turnovers and 36 ground balls. McCaffrey played an injury-riddled season with the Hens last year after being a highly-touted recruit out of Comsewogue HS. On a side note, the Hens have never had much success recruiting out of Suffolk County. They have lost nine players and recruits from Smithtown West, Eastport, Northport, Sachem and West Islip and others over the last seven years (maybe the extra 30 minutes on the LIE was just too much to bear?). The last great Suffolk County recruit that actually stayed four years at UD was Joe Junior, a HS All-American defenseman out of Ward Melville (Coach Shillinglaw had to make tremendous concessions with Junior, flying him into Delaware from Long Island for game days and mug nights at the Balloon) . The Marist defense is also helped by diminutive LSM Anthony Fillipetti (24GBs and 13CTs) from Miller Place and close defenseman Kyle Stofko (50GBs, 27GBs), both grad students. Coach Wilkinson has rotated goalies but has relied on senior Daniel O’Meara most recently, who has a .523 save percentage.

I am not sure what to think about the faceoff situation. Marist has two FOGOs that have won a combined 49% of their faceoffs. Delaware has won 48% of its faceoffs, but against different competition. The one common opponent (Mt. St. Mary’s), the Hens went 52% on faceoffs and the Red Foxes went 20-55 (36%) in the two games the teams played. Hens beat MSM 15-6 while the Red Foxes split the two games losing 9-12 and beating the Mountaineers in the MAAC tourney 19-7.

Marist clears the ball at a .849 rate and holds opponents to .914, so they don’t really ride particularly hard. Delaware clears at a .905 rate and holds opponents to .845.

How the Hens can make it to Durham on Sunday
The Hens will need to contain Embury who is really the straw that stirs the drink at Marist. He is tremendously physical player who, similar to SB’s Dylan Pallonetti, can get off shots from all angles and shoots at a 31% success rate. They will also need to keep someone close to Pirecca who always seems to find open space to get off time and room shots. He torched the Hens in the final game of the COVID season for four goals, but was held to just one the last time the teams met in 2022.

The Marist defense played well against Siena on Saturday by packing in the crease and pressuring the Saints to shoot low-angle shots from outside. I would think that they will try to do the same against the Hens. UD will need to get 4-5 goals in transition and get the Red Fox defense spinning by winning the one-on-one battles. Tye Kurtz and Mike Robinson will need to rotate the ball to get the best matchup and shoot at a higher rate than they have in recent games. JP Ward will need to continue to win the one-on-one battles at X and find cutters off the slides, like he has for the whole year. He, Robinson and Jason Kolar are coming into this game as the two hottest Hens.

I would hope that Logan Premtaj and Roland Hockenberry would be able to win around 50% of the faceoffs after an abysmal second half against Stony Brook. If they can do that and the Hens limit turnovers to 12, they should be able to hang a big number on Marist. The Hens defense will have their hands full with this very quick and potent offense that is on a roll. I would expect the Hens to be aggressive with double teams and force a bunch of turnovers. If they play well, it should be a 16-10 type of game.

I hate that the Hens have to play this game (thanks to crappy out-of-conference play from every CAA team), but I’ll be happy to attend and hopefully see another UD victory. Can't wait!