Photo by: Andrew Fielding

Less than a week ago, the DU men’s lacrosse team completed its regular season, blasting Fairfield University 11-5 at home to finish the season undefeated in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) play.

 

On Saturday morning, the Pioneers will have to play a rematch battle against the Stags for the ECAC postseason championship.

 

This time around, there’s a lot more is on the line.

 

“This two-game tournament is our second season,” said head coach Bill Tierney in a press conference Thursday night. “We completed the first third of our season last weekend [winning the ECAC regular season title] and now have one more game before the NCAAs, which is the third part of our season.”

 

The Pioneers (12-2, 7-0 ECAC) advanced to the championship game by defeating Ohio State 11-4 on Thursday night, beating the Buckeyes in the second semifinal game of the inaugural ECAC postseason tournament at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

 

Fairfield advanced earlier in the day in the tournament’s first semifinal, knocking of Loyola University 11-10 in a nail-biter.

 

“The first time around I heard their head coach Andy Copeland say they played us pretty ‘vanilla,’ so we are expecting more from them,” said Tierney. “They have some really good offensive players that can cause us problems.”

 

Despite a slow start against the Buckeyes (8-8), the Pioneers were able to cruise to a 9-1 lead late in the third quarter after trailing 1-0 at the end of the first quarter.

 

In the second quarter, the Pioneers were led by sophomore Chase Carraro, who won four of five faceoffs, as DU went on to outshoot OSU 15-5 and taking a 4-1 lead into haltime.

“The key to the game was really faceoffs,” said OSU head coach Nick Myers. “It all comes down to time of possession, and in the first quarter we did a great job at maintaining possession, but then in the second quarter we played nearly the entire quarter on defense and that was in large part to the faceoffs.”

 

The Buckeyes sent five different players to challenge Carraro in the faceoff circle, but were not successful during the middle of the game.

 

“They were switching it up, making it so I had to go up against a bunch of different guys,” said Carraro. “And I was able to handle that.”

 

In addition to Carraro, Denver was led by their freshman goalie Jamie Faus, who made 13 saves and recorded his twelfth win of the season.

 

“I think goal tending played a big role in this game,” said Myers. “Their goalie [Faus] did a great job all night, and we went into halftime frustrated because it was an even game at that point, but he ultimately made some big stops and limited us from what we wanted to do.”

 

Denver assistant coach Trevor Tierney was impressed by the freshman’s performance as well.

 

“Trevor has been a goalie at the Division I and pro level,” said Bill Tierney. “And he said this was one of the finer games he’s seen from any goalie.”

 

While the Denver’s defense clamped down on OSU’s offense throughout the contest, its offense didn’t come out in top form, failing to score early on and only registering two shots on goal in the first quarter.

 

“It’s the story of the season so far—we come out slow in the first half and then come out extremely fast in the second half,” said Carraro. “We’re trying to work on how we start games.”

 

DU found its offensive artillery, but not exactly where it had been coming from in recent weeks.

 

Junior attackman Mark Matthews set the school record for points last weekend, notching five points on four goals and an assist against Fairfled, but was held to just one goal against OSU and seldom got the chance to shoot.

 

However, the Pioneers midfield came alive, scoring seven of the 11 goals.

 

“I thought our defense played well in spurts, but when you have your guys playing 13 to 14 minutes of defense in a quarter they are bound to make mistakes,” said Myers. “And this is not a unit you want to give extra chances to, because they will eventually capitalize.”

 

Carraro led the Pioneers with two goals and six ground balls, but wasn’t the only sophomore midfielder to have a big night.

 

Cameron Flint and Hayden Schuette each finished with two goals, scrapping up multiple ground balls in the offensive zone.

 

In addition, Eric Law was able to add a goal for the midfield unit that stepped up.

 

“It’s pretty nice to know you have midfielders who can score if they are shutting down Baxter, Demopolous and Matthews like they did tonight,” said Tierney.

 

Tierney said that the team wants to play a home game in the NCAA tournament, but believes that can only be accomplished if the team takes care of business on Saturday.

 

With a short turnaround schedule, Tierney doesn’t believe there should be a cause for concern, citing that the team needs to learn how to play twice in three days if it wants to accomplish its top goal—winning the national championship.

 

“If we are going to go to the places we dream about going to in this program, which will be to the Final Four, then that means they will have to play on a Saturday and a Monday,” said Tierney. “All of this is great preparation for them for the NCAAs.”

 

The NCAA’s postseason looms, but the team knows it can’t sleep on a Fairfield team that came from behind to take a lead late in the third quarter last Saturday.

 

“It’s always hard to beat a team twice in a row, so we have to come out and play hard and play our game,” said Carraro. “Usually when you win, like we did tonight, you’re in that celebratory mode but now. For us, we have to keep our nose on the ground and keep grinding.”