Matt Brown led the Pioneers with four goals as the Pioneers displayed their talent in beating Manhattan College 14 – 5 Saturday afternoon at Pioneer field as part of the Pioneer Face-Off Classic.
On Sunday, the Pioneers lacked the fortune of the day before as they suffered an 11 – 8 loss at the hand of seventh-ranked Duke.
Denver had three players named to the All-Tournament Team including midfielder Mike Kenlay, long-stick midfielder Christian Anderson, and defensive player Cory Vann.
On Saturday, Brown put the Pioneers on the board early with his first goal of the afternoon. Only three minutes later the Pioneers stuck again as Erik Swanson managed to get the ball while the Manhattan goalie was far out of his net allowing Swanson to shoot a long range shot on an empty net. Geoff Snider also contributed with a goal assisted by Swanson. The only Manhattan goal of the first quarter came when a Pioneer player accidentally kicked the ball into his own net as he was chasing a Manhattan player around the goal. Fortunately, that one small mistake made little impact on the outcome of the game.
Just over a minute into the game Manhattan netted another goal as Justin Otto put one past DU goalie Jeff Nunziato, but six seconds later Scott Davidson scored for DU moving the momentum back into DU’s favour.
This momentum continued well into the second half as DU scored seven straight goals including two by Snider and two more by Brown. Manhattan scored twice in the last five minutes, but with just over a minute remaining in regulation time Glenn Berglund netted one putting the game away.
Before DU took the field, no. nine Duke defeated Air Force 13 – 8 in the earlier tournament game of the day.
On Sunday, the Pioneers fell behind early and found themselves down six to nothing with a few minutes left in the first quarter. With two minutes remaining in that quarter Greer Hanlon netted one putting the Pioneers on the board.
Kevin Cassese of the Blue Devils scored early in the second, but DU managed three goals in the final four minutes of the quarter as they began to gnaw into the Blue Devil lead.
Dan Flannery of Duke scored only 11 seconds into the second half. With 10 minutes left in the half, DU’s Sasaki-Scanlon and Davidson each scored a goal 17 seconds apart from each other. Duke scored twice more in the third and entered the fourth quarter up 10 – 6.
In the fourth Goodwin and Huelskoetter each scored, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to beat the seventh-ranked team in the nation as DU lost the game 11 – 8. In earlier tournament action on Sunday Manhattan College edged Air Force by a single goal 8 – 7 when Manhattan scored with 14 seconds remaining in regulation time to win the game.
The Pioneers will travel to West Point for a game against Army on Saturday and will return home for a Monday night game on March 3 under the lights against Siena at 7:30 p.m.
