The then-No. 4/5 Denver men’s lacrosse team topped Michigan 12-4 on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium to clinch the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Regular Season Title and the top seed in the conference tournament.
The Pioneers finished the season with an 11-3 record and 6-1 in ECAC play. After the win, the Pioneers not only regained the top spot in the conference, but also moved up to No. 3/4 in the national rankings. Michigan finished its season 1-13, 0-7 ECAC. This regular season title marks the Pioneer’s third since joining the league in 2010.
Scoring for the Pioneers were senior midfielder Cameron Flint and freshman attackman Gordie Koerber with three goals each, sophomore midfielder Wes Beg and senior attackman Colin Scott with two goals apiece and senior attackman Eric Law and senior midfielder Taylor Young each with one goal. Law also tied his career-best with four assists.
Defending the Pioneers in goal were junior Jamie Faus and sophomore Ryan LaPlante, who split the game half and half and each allowed two goals. LaPlante made six saves in the first half, while Faus stopped five in the second half.
Senior midfielder Chase Carraro also led the Pioneers in faceoffs, winning 12-of-16 and recording two ground balls.
Denver also honored its 12 seniors on Senior Day: Drew Babb, Chace Calkin, Chase Carraro, Nick Eggemeyer, Flint, Kyle Hercher, Law, Steve Marchetto, Hayden Schuette, Scott, Sean Snodgrass and Young.
Michigan was led by sophomore attackman Mike Francia with one goal and one assist. Senior midfielder Willie Steenland, redshirt freshman midfielder David Joseph and sophomore attackman David McCormack each added a goal apiece and freshman goalkeeper Gerald Logan tallied 17 saves in the loss.
“We’re seeing a lot of zone defenses this season, and it’s just something that we have to get used to,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “Each team’s version of the zone defense is different, and much of the credit needs to go to their goalie because he made some great saves early in the game. I thought our defense and our goalies played great, and they gave our offense the time it needed to figure out Michigan’s zone as the game went on.”
Scott opened the scoring for the Pioneers less than 2:30 into the contest assisted by Carraro before Michigan responded with a pair of goals to take their only lead of the game at 2-1 with two minutes remaining in the first quarter. As time expired, Young shot the ball past Logan to send the teams into the second period at a 2-2 tie.
Denver took advantage of a Michigan penalty in the second quarter and netted three man-up goals from Flint, Koerber and Berg within less than a minute to take a 5-2 lead with 8:26 remaining in the first half. Flint found the net again just six seconds before intermission to put Denver up by four heading into the locker room and kept the Wolverines scoreless in the second frame.
Despite the Pioneers entering the second half with a 6-2 lead, Michigan struck first for their third goal of the game less than a minute into the third quarter to cut the Denver lead. The Pioneers regained the four-goal lead just two minutes later with a goal from Law. Berg followed up with a goal of his own to give Denver an 8-3 lead just halfway through the third frame. After another goal from Scott, the Pioneers held a 9-3 advantage heading into the closing frame.
Michigan followed suit with the third quarter and struck first in the fourth before Denver netted the final three goals of the game to take a 12-4 victory in their final regular season game.
Senior midfielder Drew Babb led the Pioneers in ground balls with a career-high six, followed by Flint with five and sophomore midfielder Garret Holst with a career-high four.
DU finished with a 42-26 shot advantage over the Wolverines, a 39-22 ground ball advantage, won 14-of-18 total faceoffs, and were a perfect 20-of-20 on clears.
Denver will return to action on Thursday in Geneva, N.Y. at Hobart for the ECAC semifinals for the conference tournament. The tournament finals will be held Saturday.
The No. 1-seeded Pioneers are set to face No. 4-seeded Fairfield in the first round of the tournament at 3 p.m. The winner will play the winner of No. 2 Loyola vs. No. 3 Ohio State.
