Denver men’s lacrosse got their first win of the season last Saturday at Air Force with a score of 14-8.
Senior midfielder Mic Kelly broke the scoring early, with a spin move to beat his defender and get an open shot on goal, which he put away just 1:10 into the first quarter.
Denver extended their lead to 2-0 when senior midfielder Andrew Atchison found sophomore attacker Marek Tzagournis behind the net, who then faked his defender and slipped the ball into goal with eight minutes left in the quarter.
Air Force went on to score two straight goals and tie the game with 4:54 left in the quarter.
Denver answered back with goals from senior attacker Noah Manning and sophomore midfielder Lucas Klokiw to make the score 4-2 with two minutes left in the quarter.
Air Force got one back, and the quarter ended with Denver up, 4-3.
Denver started the second quarter in a similar fashion to the first, scoring two straight goals.
Redshirt senior midfielder Joshua Carlson scored Denver’s fifth of the game from behind the goal and then assisted graduate student attacker Judge Murphy on his solo run down the middle to put Denver up, 6-3 with 11:56 left to play in the second quarter.
Air Force fought back again to make the score 6-4 with just under 11 minutes left in the quarter, before Denver’s three straight goals from senior SSDM Casey Wilson, Carlson and redshirt senior midfielder Jack Tortolani to finish the half with a 9-4 lead.
The second half started with both teams exchanging goals, with Tzagournis scoring his second goal of the game, to make the score 10-5 with 10:29 left in the quarter.
With four minutes left in the quarter, Tzagournis got the ball from Carlson, faked right and buried a long-range goal in the top right corner of the net for his hattrick. This extended Denver’s lead to 11-5.
Kelly and Tortolani both got their second goals of the game towards the end of the quarter while Air Force scored their sixth in between the pair to make the score 13-6 at the end of the third quarter.
Air Force got two goals back in the fourth quarter to cut the score to 13-8 before Wilson found freshman attacker Chris Merageas for his first collegiate goal to give Denver a 14-8 lead with two minutes left to play.
Denver went on to close out the game for their first win of the season.
The Crimson and Gold will look to continue their momentum when they host Utah on Feb. 15 at Peter Barton Stadium.
