Denver Earns 13-12 Overtime Win at [9/10] North Carolina
DENVER MEN’S LACROSSE
Saturday, March 5, 2016
Denver Earns 13-12 Overtime Win at [9/10] North Carolina
Cannizzaro scores overtime winner, Baptiste wins 21 of 28 faceoffs
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Junior Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, N.Y.) followed up a Zach Miller (Steamburg, N.Y.) late equalizer in regulation with an overtime winner to send the [1/2] University of Denver men’s lacrosse team to a 13-12 victory over [9/10] North Carolina on Saturday afternoon at Fetzer Field to improve to 5-0 on the season.
“Credit to Carolina. Coming off that tough loss here to Hofstra two weeks ago, then going to Homewood and pulling out a decisive win against Hopkins and then coming out here today and taking it to us until that great third quarter we had,” head coach Bill Tierney said. “I thought that we were playing as well as we possibly could have in the third and in the beginning of the fourth. It was an exciting game, all that the fans could ask for. We’re going to learn a lot as a team from this game, that’s for sure.”
2015 NCAA faceoff statistical leader Trevor Baptiste (Denville, N.J.) won 21 of the 28 faceoffs, after splitting the 2015 meeting with the Tar Heels 11-11. Miller, junior captain Tyler Pace (Coquitlam, B.C.), senior captain Jack Bobzien (Littleton, Colo.) and Cannizzaro all co-led Denver with five points on the day. Miller had a team-high four goals in Denver’s victory, one off his career high. Bobzien and Cannizzaro joined Miller with hat tricks of their own, each with three goals and two assists. Pace had three assists in the first half and two goals in the second for his five-point day.
Cannizzaro opened the scoring with his 12th goal of the campaign, circling behind the cage to give Denver the early advantage. North Carolina responded with its first of two three-goal runs in the first half, including a man-up strike from UNC’s Luke Goldstock to send the home team to a 3-1 lead. Pace setup goals for a 2016 Tewaaraton Watch List selection in Miller and Bobzien to even the score at 3-3 after one quarter of play.
North Carolina jumped out to a 6-3 lead at the midway point of the second quarter before sophomore Brendan Bomberry (Ohsweken, Ontario) ended Denver’s 10-minute drought on the extra-man off Pace’s third assist of the afternoon. The home Tar Heels led 6-4 at the intermission.
The Pioneers came out of the locker room with a 5-2 run in the third quarter getting two goals from Miller and Bobzien, who completed his 12th career hat trick, in the stanza to go with Miller’s second of the afternoon. Miller, Cannizzaro, Pace and sophomore Connor Donahue (Groton, Mass.) all picked up assists in the third, including Cannizzaro’s assist to Miller on Denver’s second man-up goal of the day. The Pioneers retook the lead at 9-8 heading into the fourth quarter.
Denver extended its second-half run to 7-2 off of Cannizzaro’s second of the day and Miller’s third to make it 11-8 with 6:32 to play in regulation. The Tar Heels fought back however with four-straight in a span of 4:26 to retake the lead at 12-11 with 66 seconds to go, setting up another close finish in Chapel Hill.
Out of a timeout with 26.7 seconds to play, freshman midfielder Austin French (Danville, Calif.) had the biggest point of his young career, feeding from behind the cage to Miller, who took a step and buried his strike with 9.8 seconds to go and Denver tied things up at 12-12. Just when it looked like both teams would settle for an extra session, Baptiste won his 20th faceoff of the day and heaved it to Cannizzaro just inside the restraining line. Cannizzaro spun and fired as time was expiring, but UNC goalkeeper Brian Balkam kept it out sending the two teams to an extra frame for the first time in the series history.
Baptiste won his 21st faceoff of the afternoon to start the overtime, and after experimenting in their original set, offensive coordinator Matt Brown got his offense together once again to draw-up the game-winner. Bobzien found Cannizzaro on the game’s final play, and the junior buried it into the back of the net to send Denver to its 18th-straight win.
“Credit to our guys after all the stuff that was going on there near the end of the fourth quarter, Matt Brown draws up a play and Zach Miller comes up with a big-time goal,” Tierney said. “Then he draws up another one for the overtime win. Our guys executed well on those final two possessions.”
UP NEXT: Denver will continue its stretch of five of six away from Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium next Sunday when the Pioneers take on [2/1] Notre Dame in South Bend. Next weekend’s game will be broadcast live on ESPNU at 3:30 p.m. MT. The Pioneers home game in the stretch will take place March 19 against Ohio State at 1 p.m. MT (Fox College Sports).
POSTGAME NOTES:
– The Pioneers improved their winning-streak to 18 games on Saturday, winning their final 13 of the 2015 season en route to the program’s first National Championship (last loss 3/14/15 at Ohio State).
– Denver is now 43-9 as a top-5 team since turning Division I, including 7-2 as the No. 1 team in the USILA Coaches’ Poll. The Pioneers are also 3-2 against the No. 9 team in the country.
– Head coach Bill Tierney (seventh season) is now 88-25 at DU and 360-118 in his career (32nd season).
– Zach Miller extended his consecutive-game point streak to 42 games (entered this weekend 2nd in the nation). Miller has 131 points (72G-60A) during that stretch. Miller has had a point in every collegiate game he has played in (missed one game in 2014).
– Connor Cannizzaro extended his consecutive-game point streak to 30 games (entered the weekend 8th in the nation). Cannizzaro has 126 points (82G-44A) in that stretch.
– Cannizzaro also extended his consecutive-game goal streak to 30 games (entered the weekend tied for 2nd). Cannizzaro has 82 goals in that stretch.
– Sophomore Trevor Baptiste has double-digit faceoff wins in all 24 games of his collegiate career, 15+ faceoff wins in 17 career games and 20+ faceoff wins in six career games.
– Denver has reached 10 goals in 26 consecutive games.
– Saturday marked the sixth time since the start of the 2015 season that Denver has had three different players record hat tricks in the same game.