Freshman face-off specialist Trevor Baptiste (Denville, New Jersey) found himself in the good graces of the DU lacrosse community almost instantaneously during the Feb. 14 game against the Duke Blue Devils.
The box-score-stuffing Baptiste went 25-of-34 from the faceoff, picked up 14 ground balls and added a goal to lead the no. 1 ranked Pioneers to a 17-13 come-from-behind victory over the no. 3 the Blue Devils. Baptiste went 17-for-19 in the second half and only lost one draw in the fourth quarter.
Baptiste wasn’t the only one making waves in his Denver debut. The sophomore transfer from the University of Maryland Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, New York) assisted on five goals and found the twine himself on three such occasions for a total of eight points.
The Pioneers broke their two-game losing streak to Duke, having lost to the Blue Devils at the beginning of last year and in the Semifinals of 2014’s NCAA tournament.
For the first time since filling in for an injured Jamie Faus two years ago, senior goaltender Ryan LaPlante (Fort Collins, Colorado) played a full 60 minutes between the pipes and made nine saves.
The Pioneers also saw contributions from senior midfielder Erik Adamson (Anaheim Hills, California) who had four goals and one assist, junior attackman Jack Bobzien (Littleton, Colorado) who had six goals ;and sophomore attacker Zach Miller (Steamburg, New York), who had one goal and three assists.
Down 2-0, the Pioneers scored four unanswered goals to regain their lead. However, the Blue Devils owned a two-to-three margin for much of the first and second quarters. Adamson buried a Cannizzaro feed with four seconds left in the third quarter to tie it the game at 12.
A 9-2 game-ending run going back to 2:54 left in the third quarter spelled defeat for the Blue Devils. The Pioneers led by as many as five in the fourth.
Denver heads back home to Peter Barton Stadium this weekend and will host the 2015 Frontier Airlines Faceoff Classic. The United States Air Force Academy will be the first team to get a crack at the no. 1 Pioneers on Feb. 21 at 1:30 p.m. Furman University will play the Pioneers the following day at 1:30 p.m.
