The giant has fallen. The men’s lacrosse team is no longer the No. 1 team in the nation, after losing to the No. 4 University of North Carolina 12-10 on Feb. 27.
A loss isn’t the worst thing, especially to the fourth-ranked team in the nation. Better now than later, I say.

A fourth quarter flurry that lifted Denver over Duke a few weeks ago didn’t materialize for a few reasons. For one, freshman phenom Trevor Baptiste (Denville, New Jersey) didn’t dominate the faceoff like he did two weeks ago. Baptiste still won a respectable 11-of-22 faceoffs, but certainly wasn’t anything special.

You forget that he’s a freshman after the way he’s played, but big-stage jitters were apparent. More than once, Baptiste won the initial clamp but wasn’t able to pick up the ground ball, which was needed to secure possession for the Pioneers.
Denver was also down a man. I mean the Pioneers were penalized eight times for nine-and-a-half minutes, one flag in particular being made of complete bull excrement. That’s almost an entire quarter played with a disadvantage. Granted, Denver probably had this coming after UNC was hometowned last year during the Pios’ 9-5 Semifinal win. Denver refs flagged UNC ten times for nine minutes worth of penalties.

This game definitely could have gotten out of hand early. The pipe was senior goalie Ryan LaPlante’s (Fort Collins, Colo.) best friend in the first half, as the crossbar stuffed UNC shooters on at least four separate occasions in the first half alone. Laplante was peppered perpetually by a talented UNC squad, which put up 57 total shots.

Now for the good news. Positivity from here on out, I swear.

Though the Tar Heels had the Pio defense on their own heels for much of the third quarter (remember, fortnight of man-downness), they were solid early. It was squad that looked vastly improved over the team that took the field against Duke. No miscommunications on double-teams, fewer open shooters, barely any missed slides and only three goals given up to a team with three players that graced the 2015 Tewaaraton Watch list—Billy Bitter, Joey Sankey and Chad Tutton.

It’s also pretty neat that a team missing one of its starting attackers in junior Jack Bobzien (Littleton, Colorado) didn’t really skip a beat. They were still able to put up 10 goals (no extra goals though, which is a little disconcerting) and looked like the kind of offensive machine Denver fans have been accustomed to seeing under Assistant Coach Matt Brown.

And, boy oh boy, did you see the giddy-up of Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, New York). Yeah, we’ve already seen him play a few games here at Denver, but he brings something else to an already potent offense. He can shoot, feed and change directions on a dime—a true matchup nightmare, which is probably why ESPN broadcaster Quint Kessenich called him one of the best wing dodgers in all of college lacrosse. This offense will only get better as Bobzien gets healthier and Cannizzaro gets more comfortable, which is scary to think about.

Thankfully, the Pios will have a reprieve this next weekend as they play No. 2/3 University of Notre Dame on March 7—reprieve in the same way that Bill Tierney gives referees a reprieve, as in the yelling just gets louder. There is no break.
Notre Dame put up 17 goals on Michigan a few weeks ago, and just dominated Dartmouth 20-5. Two-time All-American Matt Kavanaugh returns for the Irish, though his team lost in California to the Pios last year by a score of 10-7.

And, like I said: It is the fourth game of the season—the best time for a loss.