1,800 people took to the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday to enjoy Bill Tierney’s last opening game day and it was not disappointing. No.18/17 DU faced the Utah Utes for the fourth consecutive opening-day match-up and upped their three-game win streak against the Utes to four. 

Bill Tierney joined the University of Denver staff for the 2010 season after a long career at Princeton University. In his 13 seasons at DU, Tierney has amassed an impressive 157-54 overall record. Coach Tierney has led his team to the postseason 10 times and helped them to win the national title in 2015. With that national championship, DU became the first team west of the Appalachian Mountains to win a lacrosse national championship. 

Junior midfielder Ty Hussey (Aurora, Colo.) got his first career goal a third of the way through the first quarter to bring Denver ahead early. Both junior midfielder Stephen Avery (Nashville, Tenn.) and sophomore attack Noah Manning (Victoria, B.C.) scored again for Denver two minutes later to extend the lead. Utah got on the board late into the first quarter with a goal by Ryan Stines. But DU went up 4-1 after a goal from junior attack Micheal Lampert (Wayland, Mass.) to end the first. 

Utah entered the second quarter strong, with Jordan Hyde scoring two goals to get the Utes back in the game. Denver fought back and junior midfield Jack Tortolani (Baltimore, Md.) added another Denver goal later in the quarter to bring them up by two heading into the half. 

Denver reclaimed momentum after the half with another goal from Lampert. Utah’s Hyde found the back of the goal shortly after for the last Utah goal of the game. Denver snuffed out the newfound hope for the Utes with goals from senior attack Richie Connell (Evergreen, Colo.), senior attack JJ Sillstrop (Encinitas, Calif.) and Avery, who added another to end the third quarter. The Crimson and Gold ended the quarter up 9-4. 

DU quickly got back to business in the fourth quarter and extended their lead even further. Sophomore attack Andrew Atchison (Marietta, Ga.) scored two goals while Stillstrop added another to his early season tally, helping secure the 12-4 win for Denver. 

Denver ended the game with 20 shots on goal while Utah had 14. Denver’s goaltenders stopped 10 shots while Utah’s stopped 8. Both teams had three minutes worth of penalties, DU scoring two times during the time and the Utes three. 

DU lacrosse will return to Peter Barton Stadium later this month after a two-week road stint at Air Force and Duke. They will play Merrimack College when they return on Feb. 25th.