The (3/3) Pioneers opened their 2017 campaign with a convincing 14-6 victory over the (19/17) Air Force Academy Falcons on Saturday, Feb. 11 at DU’s Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

Three different Pioneers recorded hat tricks in the season opener. 2016 Tewaaraton Award finalist and senior captain Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, New York) led Denver with six points (4G – 2A).

Freshman attackman Ethan Walker (Peterborough, Ontario) registered five points in his debut (3G – 2A), recording the most points by a Pioneer freshman in their first career game since 2008. Junior attackman Jeremy Bosher (Kamloops, British Columbia) totalled three goals.

An uncharacteristically low-scoring first-half performance by the Pioneers was diminished following halftime.

“On offense we were getting the right looks,” Walker said. “We were getting the right shots, we just weren’t scoring and that was the biggest problem. Our game plan for the second-half was to go in with the same intensity, same enthusiasm and a push transition. We started hitting our shots and that was great to see.”

After taking a 3-1 lead during the opening 30-minutes of play, a three-goal burst over 17 seconds by the Pioneers shifted the momentum of a nine goal second-half execution.

“It changed the whole game,” said Head Coach Bill Tierney. “You might look at the [final] score and see 14-6. But the reality was we scored five in that quarter but we had only had two, so we were at 7-4 at that point.” 

Sophomore goalie Alex Ready (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) finished the afternoon with 10 saves. Junior captain and faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste (Denville, New Jersey) completed the game with 15-for-18 faceoff attempts at the X, 12 ground balls and one goal.

Denver’s defense finished nearly perfectly on its clearing game, fulfilling 12-of-13. DU’s starting defensive line included senior captain Christian Burgdorf (Westfield, New Jersey), sophomore Dylan Johnson (Englewood, Colorado) and classmate Dylan Gaines (Baltimore, Maryland).

“They each have their own different kind of skill and personality out there,” Tierney said. “Those three guys out there today have bought into coach [John] Orsen’s controlled aggressiveness. You got to be happy when you basically hold a team to five or six goals in a 60-minute game. That’s a credit to the defense.”

The Pioneers return to Peter Barton to continue their six-game homestand welcoming Duke University on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 12 p.m.

“Usually you always improve a great deal from your first to your second game,” Tierney said. “Duke had the top recruiting class in the country. At times they played five freshmen against a pretty experienced Air Force team. [They are] highly skilled with great coaches. We know we have our hands full. It’s going to be interesting. Duke is always one of those teams where you say, ‘Wow if I can get a win on Duke it’s going to count later on.’ We’ve been fortunate the last two years to do that.”