The Pioneers return to Villanova next week for the 2024 BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Championship 4/26/24
By: Niko Blankenship
DENVER – Following a lightning delay of 2:15, the [5/6] University of Denver men’s lacrosse program survived monsoon season at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, defeating Marquette 15-9 in both teams’ regular season finale on Friday night.
KEY PERFORMANCES:
Redshirt freshman attackman Cody Malawsky led the Pioneers with four goals on 4-of-5 shooting. Richie Connell had another hat trick, Michael Lampert had two goals and a helper and Noah Manning closed out the multi-goal scorers with two of his own.
JJ Sillstrop was facilitating all night, distributing five of Denver’s nine assists.On the defensive side, Jimmy Freehill and Dan Anderson had a pair of caused turnovers apiece. Freehill added our ground ball to lead all non-faceoff athletes.
Alec Stathakis went 15-of-23 from the stripe, picking up seven ground balls and scoring a goal in the opening seconds of the contest.
Malcolm Kleban made seven saves in the first three quarters of Friday night’s regular season finale.
NOTES:
- Denver improved to 13-2 all-time against Marquette, winning each of the last eight meetings.
- The Pioneers defense held all five BIG EAST opponents to single-digit goals in the regular season.
- Denver finished the regular season holding nine opponents to single digits.
- The Pioneers improved to 176-32 when scoring double digit goals since William G. Tierney Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach Matt Brown joined the staff in 2008.
- Richie Connell netted his second hat trick of the season and the 14th of his career.
- Cody Malawsky finished off his first career hat trick with a career-high four tallies.
- JJ Sillstrop finished with a career-high five assists, recording 3+ helpers for the third time this season and the sixth time of his career. Sillstrop is the first Pioneer with 5+ assists since Richie Connell had five against Ohio State last March. Five assists is tied for the third most in a game in program history and the third-most by any men’s player in Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium history.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Following the 2:15 delay, Alec Stathakis scored 7 seconds in to give Denver the early lead. Following a Marquette leveler, Ty Hussey found the back of the net off JJ Sillstrop’s first of four first-half assists.
Nolan Garcia tie things up with 3:53 to go in the opening quarter before an AJ Mercurio bullet from just inside the box to give Denver the lead back with 1:40 to go. Cody Malawsky rounded out the first-quarter scoring with 45 seconds to go to send Denver into the second frame with a 4-2 advantage.
Second Quarter:
Malawsky’s second came on the other side of the quarter break to make it a 5-2 game with 13:10 to go before the intermission. Carsen Brandt trimmed it to 5-3 before Richie Connell’s first of two goals in the frame with 10:49 to play.
Marquette got its first back-to-back goals of the night to cut the lead to 6-5, but Connell found the back of the net again, this time unassisted, to send Denver into the locker room with a 7-5 advantage.
Third Quarter:
Noah Manning converted Denver’s first man-up opportunity of the evening to restore Denver’s three goal lead in the opening three minutes of the half. Manning’s tally started a 5-0 run in the quarter for Denver. Connell completed his hat trick with 9:42 to go, Malawsky completed his at the 5:39 mark and then Michael Lampert got on the scoresheet off Sillstrop’s fifth assist of the night to make it an 11-5 game with 4:36 to go in the half.
Mic Kelly converted a Stephen Avery feed for his only goal of the night to close out the 5-0 third quarter.
Fourth Quarter:
Luke Williams scored 37 seconds into the final frame of the evening, but Denver responded with three of the next four, getting another from Lampert, another from Manning and Malawsky’s fourth of the night.
Marquette got the final two of the night to close out the 15-9 game.
UP NEXT:
Denver will return to Villanova next week as the No. 1 seed in the 2024 BIG EAST Men’s Lacrosse Championship, presented by JEEP. The Pioneers will take on fourth-seeded Villnova in the first of two semifinals on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. MT. Thursday night’s game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and 104.3 The Fan HD3.