The DU men’s lacrosse team returned home this weekend after being dealt two tough losses while on the East Coast.
The Pioneers were able to end their two game skid and extend their streak of home wins to seven, defeating the Bellarmine Knights on Friday night and the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Sunday. DU saw its first conference opponent in Quinnipiac and promptly recorded its first conference win of the season.
Friday night was the first time in Denver’s history that it played Bellarmine and the Pioneers made sure the Knights wouldn’t forget it.
Denver scored eight goals in the first half and held the Knights to only three, all of which were scored by Adam Gardner for the Knights.
Denver overwhelmed the Knights both offensively and defensively racking up 47 shots to Bellarmine’s 16 and grabbing 40 ground balls to Bellarmine’s 24.
Junior Brandon Barcus tallied six goals, while senior Adam Goodwin recorded three goals and two assists for the Pioneers. Also scoring for Denver was sophomore Brett Koll with two goals and junior Ryan Zordani with one. Senior Geoff Snider won 13 straight face-offs in the first half and lost only two in the second to finish with 19-21. Snider also scored one goal and got an assist along with a game high 15 ground balls.
Snider said, “We played tough and hard and it was really a matter of tightening up the screws for a lot of guys. I just didn’t want to lose to him. But he’s a good kid and it was great to see him out on the field and I’m proud of him.”
“We really want to step it up offensively and limit the mistakes we were making and I think that we did that and we moved the ball really well,” said Barcus after the game.
While Friday night was the first time Denver faced Bellarmine it was also the first time that Geoff Snider and his younger brother Bobby Snider faced off against each other in a lacrosse game. Freshman T.J. Fast also made his first appearance as a Denver lacrosse player, Fast is also a member of the Pioneer Hockey team. Fast’s first recorded action was a penalty for pushing, that he incurred with just over two minutes left in the game which got a good laugh out of his teammates on the sideline.
first it was a little confusing, but it was fun. All the guys were telling me where to go,” commented Fast.
“We were really excited for him. Poor kid was in the hospital two days ago just hating life and he got a chance to get in there and play and get into the stat book with a penalty,” Coach Munro said lightheartedly about T.J. Fast’s first appearance on the lacrosse field.
“But he is a good kid and a great athlete and we are happy to have him.”
Pioneer goalie Jeb Hollingsworth let in four goals and recorded five saves in 49:57 minutes of play, while backup Austin Konkel let in one goal in 10:03 minutes of play.
Munro said, “This was huge for us. We had a tough weekend last weekend even though we played pretty well at times.”
Sunday saw DU’s first Great Western Lacrosse League match-up taking on the Quinnipiac Bobcats in Peter Barton Stadium. DU defeated the Bobcats 17-8 improving their record to 7-4 (1-0) and kept the home streak alive, improving that to 7-0. Denver once again out shot their opponents this time taking 39 shots to the Bobcats 26. The Pioneers also grabbed 45 ground balls to Quinnipiac’s 33.
Leading all scorers was Pioneer Adam Goodwin with five goals. Jon Paulson got three in the net and Eric Covey, Brad Richardson, Micheal Goltra, Andrew Bourke and Barcus all recorded one goal for the Pioneers. Snider grabbed a game high 10 ground balls and won 14 of 21 face-offs. Konkel played all 60 minutes in the cage, recording eight saves and eight goals against in his second win of the season.
The Pioneers will play two more games at home, April 14 when DU will face the Fighting Irish in their second league game of the season. Notre Dame is currently ranked No. 11 while DU is ranked No. 19.
