From the lacrosse capital of the west, DU’s men’s lacrosse team is ready for another season dominating the field.
With seven returning graduate students and Matt Brown stepping into the position of head coach, DU knew they were setting themselves up for another great season. Brown is joined this year by David Metzbower, coming from Princeton as an offensive coordinator, who is equally ready to step up the Denver offensive game.
Last year, the Crimson and Gold ended their season 10-5, losing to Georgetown in the Big East Finals after defeating them earlier in the season. With the transition after the retirement of long-time Denver Head Coach Bill Tierney, who spearheaded the change in DU’s performance, Denver was ready to go further this season.
Denver began their season in Baltimore against No.5 Johns Hopkins, in a game that truly showcased what the Crimson and Gold was made of.
No. 15 Denver started the game off with a two point deficit. Returning graduate student and faceoff specialist Alec Stathakis won the opening face off against the Blue Jays, and senior midfielder Michael Lampert scored the first goal of the game. The Jays came back quickly from this, ending the first quarter 5-3.
The second quarter looked promising, where graduate student attack JJ Sillstrop started his best ever season opener performance and scored back to back goals, tying the game 5-5.
Redshirt Freshman attack Cody Malawsky used the energy off of Sillstrop to continue the DU domination, where he not only scored one, but two goals in his first ever career game. Malawsky knew that the Crimson and Gold were depending on his shot and truly flew across the field to score a wrap-around goal after dodging three members of the Jays’ defensive line. This was quickly combated by the Jays, who came back ending second with a 9-6 lead.
Senior midfielder Ty Hussey came with a vengeance during the third quarter, scoring his first goal of the season, making it 10-7. While Senior goalie Malcolm Kleban continued to make a valiant effort, the Jays ended the fourth 11-7.
The Crimson and Gold truly shined during the fourth quarter. Senior midfielder Stephen Avery made it past the Jays’ defensive line, quickly moving the ball into the back of the net for his first goal of the day.
The Blue Jays couldn’t end Sillstrop’s momentum as he proceeded to get a straight cut in between Hopkins’ goalie’s legs, bringing the lead back to the 2 for the Jays.
It was all Sillstrop during the final two minutes of the contest, and with 44 seconds left he ripped a low shot to bring the deficit down to one. After Denver drew a two minute penalty, with just 2.1 seconds in the game, Sillstrop launched a long-distance bullet past the goalkeeper and forced overtime with a buzzer-beater.
Sillstrop wasn’t done quite yet, and just two minutes into the overtime, Sillstrop racked up a sock trick (six goals in one game), completed the comeback, and won the Crimson and Gold their first game of the season.
The Crimson and Gold will be back on home field Sat. Feb. 10 against the Air Force Academy to continue their golden start to the season.
