Outstanding efforts from junior faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste (Denville, New Jersey) and senior captain Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, New York) led the No. 6 DU Pioneers (7-2, 1-0 BIG EAST) to a 20-11 victory in their BIG EAST conference opener over the Georgetown University (2-8, 0-2 BIG EAST) Hoyas on April 1 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
Baptiste broke the program’s faceoff wins record (736) as he completed the afternoon with 26 successful draws, tying the single-game career record.
“I just take it faceoff-by-faceoff, game-by-game, and I get a lot of help on the wings,” Baptiste said. “It’s definitely great to be in the books, but, you know, it’s not the top [goal]. I want to win [another] national championship with the team.”
Cannizzaro, who was a 2016 Tewaaraton Award Finalist, recorded a career-high nine points on four goals and five assists to help the Pioneers reach 20 goals for the first time since 2012. Sophomore attack Austin French (Danville, California) added a career-high five points on a hat trick and two helpers. Freshman Ethan Walker (Peterborough, Ontario) mirrored French’s production, doing so for the fourth time this season.
While the final score reflects a dominant performance by the Pioneers, the Hoyas proved to be a formidable opponent in the first-half.
The Hoyas forced 11 Denver turnovers, with five coming early on. Denver ended the first quarter tied 4-4 with Georgetown after rallying from a 4-2 deficit. The Pioneers and Hoyas swapped goals before heading into the locker room with the score set 8-6 at the half.
“Defensively, we didn’t play very well. Our individual defense wasn’t good, our help defense wasn’t good,” Tierney said. “[Goalie] Alex [Ready] wasn’t great. We just didn’t have a good day defensively, so that’s why, thank God, we have a guy like Trevor [Baptiste] who is going to get us the ball back, even if they score. But we’ll get better.”
Denver and Georgetown exchanged goals within the first three minutes of the third frame before the Pioneers blazed out to a seven-goal run that doubled their lead 16-8. Denver outscored the Hoyas 4-3 in the final quarter to clinch the “W.”
Despite missing starting sophomore defenders Dylan Johnson (Englewood, Colorado) and Dylan Gaines (Baltimore, Maryland), both out with injuries, the Pioneers were resilient to the adversity.
“I’m proud of the guys,” Denver Head Coach Bill Tierney said. “We got off to a terrible start—credit to Georgetown for that. But we got in the locker room, coach [Matt] Brown made a couple of adjustments and I think we came in the second half a lot more ready.”
Denver is set to host (20/RV) Villanova University next weekend on April 9.
“We’ve got a big challenge in Villanova this week,” Tierney said. “They play such a strange style of offense, so we’ve got our hands full.”
Faceoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.
