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The Delaware Blue Hens are the 40th team in our 2018 schedule preview series and the third team from the CAA. The Blue Hens hired a brand new head coach in Ben DeLuca after longtime boss Bob Shillinglaw announced his retirement before the start of the team’s 2017 season.
Here’s the entire 2018 schedule:
Delaware’s 2018 Schedule
Date | Road Team | Home Team | Special Notes | Last Year's Meeting(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Road Team | Home Team | Special Notes | Last Year's Meeting(s) |
1/27 | Colgate | Delaware | Scrimmage | |
2/3 | Delaware | Denver | Scrimmage | |
2/10 | Mount St. Mary's | Delaware | 18-5 W | |
2/17 | NJIT | Delaware | First ever meeting | |
2/24 | Delaware | Monmouth | 11-10 W/OT | |
3/3 | Villanova | Delaware | 13-10 W | |
3/6 | Mercer | Delaware | First meeting since 2012 (14-2 W) | |
3/10 | Delaware | Binghamton | 13-9 L | |
3/17 | Delaware | Johns Hopkins | First meeting since 2012 (8-6 L) | |
3/24 | Delaware | Rutgers | 13-9 W | |
3/31 | Fairfield | Delaware | CAA | 11-7 L |
4/7 | UMass | Delaware | CAA | 9-6 L |
4/14 | Delaware | Hofstra | CAA | 11-9 L |
4/21 | Delaware | Towson | CAA | 10-6 L |
4/27 | Drexel | Delaware | CAA | 14-9 L |
Delaware gets Johns Hopkins, Mercer, and NJIT on their schedule. They swap them with Bucknell, Manhattan, Navy, St. Joe’s, and VMI, so their schedule is lighter by two games than last year.
Let’s check out some notable games on this schedule:
Best Nonconference Game: vs. Villanova
The Wildcats were one of three impressive Blue Hen victories from a year ago, and Nova will be good again this year. They’ll be improved in some spots, including in goal with Matt Barrett.
Best Conference Game: vs. UMass
Delaware failed to earn a CAA win all last year, and they haven’t won in the conference since April 16, 2016 when they upset Towson. It’s a six team conference, but the CAA is still tough to play, especially in the final few weeks of the regular season.
Under The Radar Game: @ Binghamton
Binghamton took last year’s meeting, 13-9, but they have some question marks to answer. They’re a bigger question mark than Delaware due to those losses which include Tom Moore and Garrett Waldron, so the Blue Hens might be able to capitalize with their young core led by Charlie Kitchen and Matt DeLuca.
Possible Upset: @ Johns Hopkins
Mid-March isn’t usually the best time to see Hopkins play in recent years. They can lose some questionable games, but this year, they’ll have Delaware in between Syracuse and Virginia. The Blue Jays could lose focus on the Blue Hens, and it might mean a bad loss down at Homewood Field.
For other schedules and team rosters, check out our Men’s Division I matrix.