Denver men’s lacrosse defeated the Air Force Falcons 10-9 in their season opener on Feb. 13 at Cadet Lacrosse Stadium.
Freshman attack Nate Marano (Tustin, California) led the Pioneers to the victory with four goals; two tallied in the first nine minutes of play and two fourth quarter finishes.
Junior Zach Miller (Steamburg, New York) was the first to put Denver on the board just 2:41 into the game, with an unassisted conversion.
Air Force responded scoring their first off an empty net resulting from Denver’s defensive failure to clear the Falcon’s offensive pressure.
2015 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) First-Team All American Connor Cannizzaro’s (Cazenovia, New York) unassisted goal ignited a five-goal run scored by five different Pioneers in just under five minutes of the first quarter.
Marano recorded his first career goal off a tic-tac-toe play from Miller to Jack Bobzien (Littleton, Colorado) to Marano with the finish.
Denver extended their lead 4-1 when senior Colin Woolford scored off a feed from Cannizzaro. Just 35 seconds later, Marano found the back of the net off a distribution from senior captain Tyler Pace (Coquitlam, British Columbia). Cannizzaro received his second assist when sophomore midfielder Brendan Bomberry finished the run for the Pios. Just over a minute before the end of the first quarter, Air Force’s Chris Allen scored to cut the deficit down 2-6 for the Falcons.
Play slowed during the second quarter for the Pios. One minute into the second frame, Pace tallied his first of the game and scored again with 2:38 left in the first half. Air Force’s Nick Hruby and Austin Smith shortened Denver’s lead 8-4 going into halftime.
The Falcons led shots on goal (20-15) over Denver, but the Pios led faceoffs (12-2), groundballs (17-12) and saves (12-2) at the half.
Momentum switched during the third quarter as Air Force generated a five-goal run to take a 9-8 lead over Denver.
During the fourth quarter, Marano tied the score for Denver with a rebound goal from Cannizzaro’s initial shot at 4:17. At 1:53 left in play, Marano capitalized off of a pass from Bobzien.
Freshman Alex Ready (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) finished his collegiate debut with 13 saves. USILA First-Team All-American and team faceoff-specialist Trevor Baptiste finished with 16-23 faceoff wins.
Denver travels to Kennesaw, Georgia on Feb. 20 to face No. 3-ranked Duke University at 12 p.m. MT.
