The [1/1] University of Denver men’s lacrosse program pulled away late against [14/15] Duke on Saturday afternoon in-front of the 15th-straight sellout at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The Pioneers improved to 2-0 on the year while the Blue Devils fell to 2-2.
2016 Tewaaraton Finalist Connor Cannizzaro led the scoring with six points on four goals and two assists, becoming the third player at DU to reach 200 career points. Freshman Ethan Walker also recorded his second hat-trick of his young career, getting a trio of goals and an assist for four total points.
Junior faceoff man Trevor Baptiste was successful on 17-of-25 faceoff attempts, finishing with nine ground balls and a goal in the process, while sophomore Austin French added three assists.
Sophomore Alex Ready took the win, making eight saves while backstopping the Pioneers.
Jack Bruckner led Duke in scoring with three points on two goals and an assist, while Justin Guterding and John Prendergast each recorded a pair of goals for the Blue Devils. Danny Fowler took the loss for Duke, making 11 saves on the day.
Denver put the pressure on early in the first quarter, firing off six shots before an unforced turnover gave Duke the ball. The Blue Devils had a couple of shot opportunities stopped by Ready on the ensuing attack, before Walker took a feed from Planning and connected for the first goal of the game just past the nine-minute mark.
Connor Flynn doubled Denver’s lead four minutes later with his first goal since the 2014 season, lacing a shot past Fowler with 4:42 remaining. Duke was held without a goal in the opening 15 minutes for a 2-0 DU lead heading into the second frame
Bruckner got the visitors on the board early in the second stanza, picking up a loose ball on a save from Ready and putting away Duke’s first goal of the game just past the 14-minute mark for a 2-1 score. Cannizzaro provided the response three minutes later as he took a feed from Walker and snuck his 200th career point past Fowler with 11 minutes remaining for a 3-1 Denver lead.
The Blue Devils came right back and cut the lead back down to one with 7:55 on the clock as Guterding put away his 11th goal of the season, and tied the contest at 3-3 with 7:02 remaining as Prendergast powered home his first goal of the game.
Duke took a brief lead at the 4:13 mark as Quigley took a pass from Smith and found a gap around Ready, but Denver’s French found Phillips with 1:15 remaining to knot the score yet again at 4-4. Cannizzaro put away his second goal of the game on another pass from French for a 5-4 Pioneer lead heading into the lockerroom.
The teams traded goals coming out of the break as Colton Jackson potted his first goal of the game with 13:48 on the timer, before Prendergast got his second of the day with 11:49, followed by Walker’s second at 10:46 to extend DU’s lead to 7-5.
Duke went on a two-goal run spanning over the break between quarters to tie the score once again at 7-7 in the back and forth affair with 12:45 to go in regulation.
A goal a side, including Danny Logan’s first career goal made it 8-8 with 9:01 to play in the fourth.
Thanks in large part to Baptiste’s 11-of-15 performance at the faceoff X in the second half, Denver would end the game on a 6-1 run in the final 7:30. Jackson, Baptiste, Flynn, Cannizzaro and Walker all scored for the Pioneers in the run (Cannizzaro scored twice).
Featured Image: Denver Pioneers, Facebook
