Connor Cannizzaro scores five times in Denver’s 10th win of the campaign
DENVER – The [3/3] University of Denver men’s lacrosse team battled snowy conditions for the second week in a row, to a 17-10 win over St. John’s Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
“The [grounds crew] guys were here at six and cleaned the field,” Bill Tierney said. “It goes back to when I thanked them after the Championship. These guys make us run. They did such an amazing job. That field today was in as good of shape as it has ever been in. I give Doug and his crew a lot of credit, they made the game happen today. A lot of events around here were cancelled, and our grounds crew wouldn’t accept that, and got the field ready for us to play.”
Sophomore Trevor Baptiste
(Denville, N.J.) won 20 of his 25 faceoff attempts, and picked up a career high 20 ground balls in the Denver (10-1, 3-0 BIG EAST) win. Saturday marked the seventh game in Batpiste’s career that he recorded 20 faceoff wins, and the 21st game with 15+ faceoff wins.
Junior Connor Cannizzaro (Cazenovia, N.Y.) led Denver with five goals, while junior Tyler Pace (Coquitlam, B.C.) dished out four helpers on the day. Senior captain Jack Bobzien (Littleton, Colo.) tallied his third hat trick of the season and added a pair of assists, while freshman Colton Jackson (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) completed the hat trick trio with the first three-goal game of his young career.
Sophomore Brendan Bomberry (Ohsweken, Ontario) scored a goal and provided a career-high three helpers, and sophomore Connor Donahue (Groton, Mass.) netted a pair to go along with an assist to tie his career high with three points.
Freshman netminder Alex Ready (Lancaster, Pa.) made 11 saves on 20 shots against the Red Storm (1-11, 0-3 BIG EAST). Eric DeJohn recorded five goals and an assist to lead St. John’s, while Jason Debenedictis added a hat trick of his own on the day.
The Pioneers scored back-to-back goals 0:58 apart to begin the game. Cannizzaro gathered a pass from Donahue and dunked it for his first of the game before freshman Austin French (Danville, Calif.) finished an assist from Bomberry with 10:57 remaining in the first half. The Denver run continued as Donahue scored an unassisted goal 1:52 later.
St. John’s got on the board with its lone first-quarter goal as James Bonanno scored off an assist from Zach Larsen. Denver closed out the quarter with two more goals. Bobzien snuck around from the backdoor to finish the assist from Pace. Following a timeout, Cannizzaro sent a laser from 15 yards away past goalie Joseph Danaher with 3:29 to go.
Denver continued its offensive success in the second quarter. The Pioneers linked together a three-goal run in 1:06 to increase their lead to 8-1 with 9:25 to play in the first half. Bobzien finished Bomberry’s second assist of the game, then Jackson scored on the run from the right side. Cannizzaro closed out the run by completing his hat trick with a sidearm goal off an assist from Pace.
The Red Storm countered with their second goal of the game with 5:53 remaining in the first half before Denver and St. John’s traded goals to close out the second quarter. Donahue finished a Denver transition goal after Pace caused a turnover in the midfield. Defender Christian Burgdorf (Westfield, N.J.) picked up the ball and passed it ahead to Cannizzaro who sent the ball to Bobzien who assisted Donahue on the goal. SJU converted on a man-up opportunity with 1:10 remaining in the half after preserving possession with a critical ground ball; the Red Storm passed the ball around to find their third goal of the game.
Denver held a 9-3 scoring advantage at halftime. The Pioneers also held the advantage at the faceoff dot, winning 10-of-14 in the first half, including 6-of-7 in the first quarter. The Pioneers also recorded 10 more shots and picked up four more ground balls than the Red Storm through the first two quarters.
St. John’s began the second half on a power-play opportunity, scoring 0:12 into the third quarter to go 2-for-2 on the extra man. Jackson responded for the Pioneers 1:33 later with a left-handed goal on the run to return Denver’s lead to six goals, 10-4. The Red Storm continued to challenge Denver, recording consecutive goals for the first time in the game to cut DU’s lead to 10-6 with 8:52 to play in the third quarter.
Cannizzaro prevented a St. John’s run as he scored off an assist from Bomberry with 8:03 remaining in the third quarter. The teams then traded goals for hat tricks, as Jason Debenedictis scored and Colton Jackson finished an assist from Bobzien for his third goal of the game.
Pace then dished out a pair of assists to increase Denver’s lead to 14-7 with 1:03 remaining in the third quarter. Bomberry scored his lone goal of the game as he posted on the crease and deflected the ball into the goal, then Bobzien completed his hat trick as he turned the corner around the net to finish a pass from Pace.
Cannizzaro closed out the third quarter with his fifth goal, running to the middle of the field and finishing from 13 yards with 0:07 on the clock.
It was a quiet fourth quarter as neither team scored in the first 8:57. Junior Max Planning (Alexandria, Va.) scored off an assist from senior Bryce Parietti (Centennial, Colo.) to end the 9:04 scoring drought. Eric DeJohn went on a fourth-quarter run for the Red Storm, scoring back-to-back unassisted goals before freshman Nate Marano (Tustin, Calif.) became the eighth goal-scorer for the Pioneers with 2:08 remaining in the game. DeJohn closed out the game with his fifth goal of the game 0:31 later.
UP NEXT: Denver will play its final regular season away game of the 2016 campaign next Saturday when the Pioneers travel to BIG EAST foe Providence. Faceoff is set for 10 a.m. MT, and the game can be seen live on Pioneer Vision and heard on 104.3 The Fan. Regardless of Denver’s outcome at Providence on Saturday, Denver and Marquette will play for the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament to be played at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium May 5,7 on Senior Day.
POSTGAME NOTES:
- Denver is now 48-10 as a top-5 team since turning Division I, including 9-2 (4-0 Home) as the No. 3 team in the USILA Coaches’ Poll.
- The Pioneers are 78-14 at home since Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium opened in 2005.
- Denver is 47-5 at home under head coach Bill Tierney
- DU extended its home winning streak to 20 games, the longest active in the country and the 14th longest in NCAA history.
- DU stretched its win streak against BIG EAST teams to 18 games, the second-longest active conference winning streak and the eighth longest in NCAA history.
- The Pioneers are 86-11 when scoring double-digit goals since the 2010 campaign, and 101-15 since Matt Brown was a full time member of the staff in 2008. Denver has scored double-digit goals in 31 of its last 32 games.
- Head coach Bill Tierney(seventh season) is now 93-26 at DU and 365-119 in his career (32nd season).
- Connor Cannizzaroextended his consecutive-game point streak to 36 games (entered the week 10th in the nation). Cannizzaro has 156 points (102G-54A) in that stretch.
- Cannizzaro also extended his consecutive-game goal streak to 36 games (entered the weekend first in the country). Cannizzaro has 102 goals in that stretch.
- Sophomore Trevor Baptistehas double-digit faceoff wins in all 30 games of his collegiate career.
- This game marks the seventh time since the start of last season that three different Pioneers have scored a hat trick.
- Denver’s first line did not play in the fourth quarter, and junior Zach Miller did not record a point in the Denver win for the first time in his three-year career (47 games/was 3rd longest streak).