After falling to Loyola in all three meetings last season, the then-No. 3/4 Pioneer men’s lacrosse team outlasted then-No. 5/6 Greyhounds 13-12 in overtime Saturday to clinch their fifth straight win and improve to 10-2 on the season and an undefeated 5-0 in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC).
After the win, the Pioneers moved up to No. 1 in both national polls and have secured the No. 1 spot in the ECAC rankings with just two remaining games on the season against conference opponents No. 4 Fairfield and No. 8 Michigan. Loyola comes in at No. 2 after the Pioneers with a 5-1 ECAC record, 9-3 overall.
The team was led by senior midfielder Cameron Flint, who scored the game-winner and three additional goals, making Saturday his second consecutive four-goal game. Also contributing for the Pioneers were sophomore midfielders Wes Berg and Eric Adamson and senior attackman Eric Law with two goals each, along with freshman attackman Gordie Koerber, senior midfielder Taylor Young and sophomore attackman Sean Cannizzaro, who each added a goal.
“This was a really tough game, and a great deal of credit needs to go to Loyola because they never gave up and battled against us right to the last second,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “I thought our team played an outstanding first half, and Loyola played an outstanding second half.”
Defending the Pioneers in goal was sophomore Ryan LaPlante, who, in his first full game since the Pioneers fell to Penn State Feb. 17, made a career-high 18 saves. Senior midfielder Chase Carraro also finished with a season-high 16 ground balls and won a season-high 18-of-26 faceoffs. Junior goalkeeper Jack Runkel made 13 saves for Loyola in the loss.
The Greyhounds opened the game’s scoring, only to be followed by four straight Pioneer goals from Young, Law, Berg and Flint to wrap up the first quarter at 4-1.
Loyola struck first again in the second quarter, but Flint and Berg each found the net for the second time of the day to put the Pioneers up 6-2. Loyola’s senior midfielder Davis Butts answered the Pioneer goals with one of his own with 5:25 remaining in the first half.
The Pioneers closed the first half with a third goal from Flint and Law’s second of the game with five seconds remaining to head into the locker room with an 8-3 advantage over the Greyhounds.
The second half opened with a scoreless 10 minutes before senior attackman Mike Sawyer put away a pass from junior attackman Justin Ward to cut Denver’s lead to 8-4. Cannizzaro answered just 21 seconds later for Denver with his third goal of the season to increase the Pioneer lead back to five.
Loyola found the net three more times in the third quarter, cutting the Pioneers’ lead to 9-7 heading into the final period in regulation.
Adamson and Koerber opened the fourth quarter with goals within a minute of each other, giving Denver an 11-7 lead. Loyola brought it within two with 9:20 left to play before Adamson scored his 20th goal of the season, giving the Pioneers a three-goal cushion with 8:40 remaining in regulation.
The Greyhounds responded with three straight goals to knot the game at 12-12 as the final minutes expired and sent the two teams into overtime.
Carraro won the opening overtime faceoff before Flint picked up the ground ball and ran it down the field to beat Runkel with just 16 seconds off the clock to secure the win for the Pioneers.
“I’m proud of the way our team responded when it came time to head into overtime,” said Tierney. “Our whole team stepped up when we needed them to, and that is a mark of a good team.”
The Pioneers will return home to take on ECAC opponent Fairfield Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first of their final two games of the regular season.
