[4/5] Denver Falls to [RV/-] Villanova in BIG EAST Semifinal 5/2/24

Box Score VILLANOVA, Pa.  – The [4/5] top-seeded University of Denver men’s lacrosse program fell to fourth-seeded Villanova 10-9 on Thursday evening in the first of two BIG EAST Semifinals at Villanova Stadium.

KEY PERFORMANCES:
JJ Sillstrop netted a hat trick on 3-of-8 shooting with three ground balls.
Mic Kelly had a pair of goals, Denver’s only other multi-goal scorers of the game.
Alec Stathakis went 15-of-21 from the faceoff stripe with 11 ground balls.

NOTES:
After just three goals in the last seven games, JJ Sillstrop netted his fourth hat trick of the season and the 20^th of his career.
Denver went on 5-0 third quarters for the second-straight game, and shutout Villanova 8-0 in the two meetings this season.
All six assists came from players who didn’t score.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Villanova raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first 3:57 of the contest, including a turnover in transition off the ride. The Wildcats would later extend their lead to 4-0 with 5:53 to play in the first frame and take us to the media timeout.Denver’s first goal of the day came from an unlikely source when Jack DiBenedetto sniped the 10-man ride just shy of 60 yards.Second Quarter:
The Wildcats restored their four-goal advantage and built it to five with the first two goals of the second quarter, making it 6-1 with 5:33 to go in the half.Mic Kelly got Denver’s first offensive goal with 3:25 to go in the half, his 15^th tally of the season. Ty Hussey got the helper on the Kelly goal.

AJ Mercurio drew an offside penalty, and Denver held onto possession with 28 seconds to go on the man-up heading into the locker room trailing by four.

Third Quarter:
Richie Connell found the back of the net on the man-up off a feed from Noah Manning to get the second-straight 5-0 third quarter for the Pioneers started.

JJ Sillstrop had a hat trick in the third quarter, starting with his first of the day with 12:09 to play in the frame off a feed from Daniel Clark on a second man-up opportunity for the Pioneers.

Kelly’s second of the evening cut the Villanova lead to one on a third extra-man goal of the frame to make it 6-5 with 3:58 to go.

Sillstrop’s second came in transition off an extra pass from Marek Tzagournis to tie things back up for the first time since 0-0 in the early stages of the first quarter.

The go-ahead goal came off a wild sequence in-front of the Villanova net. Mercurio had his shot stopped but Sillstrop was first to the ground ball, spun around and fired it into an empty net while keeping himself off the crease to give Denver a 7-6 advantage with 2:06 to go in the frame.

Following the six-goal run dating back to the later stages of the second quarter, Denver took that one-goal lead into the final frame.

Fourth Quarter:
Off an unfortunate bounce for Denver, Sam Parkinson buried a goal in transition to even the score back up at 7-7 with 12:42 to go in the final frame, breaking a 22:51 drought in-between goals.

Villanova retook the lead at 8-7 with 9:25 to go before Jack Tortolani got his name on the scoresheet to even things back at 8-8 with 8:45 to go.

Tyler Boes gave Villanova the lead back with 4:39 to play. With under 20 seconds to go on the shot clock later in the quarter, Denver drew up a beautiful play that led to a Cody Malawsky goal off a feed from Joshua Carlson to tie things up once more at 9-9 with 1:45 to go.

Villanova won the following faceoff and buried a goal with 36.4 seconds to play. Lampert appeared to have the game-tying goal, but he was ruled inside the inner-crease and the goal was wiped off.

UP NEXT:
Denver awaits its draw in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Selection Show set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m. MT on ESPN2.

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