It may not have been the cleanest. It may not have been the most efficient. It may not have been what the Blue Hens had game planned, but in the end, the University of Delaware men's lacrosse team started 1-0 for the third straight season with a season-opening 14-8 victory over Mount St. Mary's on a cold February afternoon at Delaware Stadium. Freshman Mike Robinson set a school record with seven goals in his first collegiate game, while senior goalie Matt DeLuca tied a career-high with 19 saves to lead the Blue & Gold. Senior Charlie Kitchen continued his goal-scoring streak with four goals and one assist. He has now scored in 33 straight games, the longest active streak in the country. "It certainly wasn't our best effort today, but what I'm ultimately proud of is that our goal each week is to go 1-0 and that's exactly what we did today," head coach Ben DeLuca said. "Early season lacrosse can be sloppy and not the prettiest and I think you saw that on both sides today. But we responded on multiple occasions and that's a big step for our guys." Freshman Tate Wasson led a defensive effort with three caused turnovers, while Robinson and Tye Kurtz each had five and four ground balls, respectively. "I've been playing lacrosse my entire life so I tried to approach it just like any other game that I've played. My teammates did a great job putting me in position to capitalize and I was able to execute and help my team get the win." The Mount jumped out to an early lead with four goals in the first quarter, but Delaware would respond right away in the second. Kitchen took a feed from Clay Miller and fired one home less than a minute into the quarter. The Blue Hens would score three more times in the next five minutes and quickly grab a 5-4 lead. Delaware would never relinquish the lead with Robinson and classmate Jake DeMare both scoring in the final four minutes of the first half to send the Blue Hens into the break with a 7-5 cushion. Two more from Robinson in the first eight minutes of the second half pushed the lead to 9-5 in the early stages of the third quarter. The Mount got it to 11-7 early in the fourth, but Delaware would score a man-up and two man-down goals in the final 10 minutes to secure the 14-8 victory. "We know we didn't play our best today, but we know that we're going to have to win games that we don't play the way we're capable of," Matt DeLuca said. "I think the biggest thing was how we responded after getting punched in the mouth early on. We knew we had a choice to either fold or fight back and I'm proud of the way we responded throughout the game."