[RV/20] Denver Drops Home Game to [9/10] Ohio State 3/16/25

DENVER – The [RV/20] University of Denver men’s lacrosse team and [9/10] Ohio State took a 2-2 tie into the second quarter before a 6-1 run for the Buckeyes blew the game open in a 15-11 OSU win on Sunday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

SIGNIFICANT STATS:

• Sunday’s win is Ohio State’s first in the series of former conference rivals since March 19, 2017.
• The win was OSU’s first at Barton since a GWLL date between the two teams in 2009.
• Noah Manningled Denver’s offense with a five-point afternoon on a hat trick and two assists.
• Marek Tzagournishad three goals and four shots to go with three ground balls to round out Denver’s multi-goal scorers.
• Daniel Clark, Cody Malawskyand Mic Kellyall had a goal and an assist.
• Chris Caldwellled Denver’s defense with three caused turnovers and six ground balls.
• Denver’s goalie tandem combined for 10 saves.
• Michael Krause went 13-of-24 with nine ground balls from the faceoff stripe.

POSTGAME NOTES:

• Noah Manningnetted his second hat trick of the season and the 10^th of his career.
• Marek Tzagourniscompleted his second hat trick of the season and of his career.
• Chris Caldwell’sthree CTs and six GBs both tied career highs.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Half:
Ohio State opened the scoring 11 seconds in, but Noah Manningscored his 10^th goal of the season on the other end to cancel out the Buckeyes opener in the opening minute. Marek Tzagournisnetted his ninth on a feed from Manning on the next possession to make it 2-1 Pios with 12:52 to go.

Ohio State went 7-1 run the rest of the first half to take an 8-3 lead into the locker room. Denver’s third goal came from Lucas Klokiw, who buried his fourth of the campaign left handed down the left alley.

Denver turned it over 12 times in the first half compared to just six from Ohio State. The Buckeyes owned a 19-9 shot advantage, including 15-6 on goal.

Third Quarter:
Denver got the first two goals of the second half to trim the deficit to three when Cody Malawskyfinished a Mic Kellyfeed and then Malawsky hit Daniel Clarkthrough five Buckeye defenders to make it an 8-5 game.

Ohio State continued its hot run at the faceoff stripe to control possession, getting one to stop the Denver mini run and then start its own to make it 10-5 Buckeyes with 6:32 to go.

Denver answered with back-to-back goals at 6:05 and 5:00 to go on back-to-back tallies from Tzagournis to complete his hat trick to make it 10-7.

The Buckeyes ended the quarter with the fourth two-goal run of the period to take a 12-7 advantage into the fourth.

Fourth Quarter:
A scrum in-front of the Denver bench that drew two flags on Ohio State and a flag on the Pioneers kicked off the fourth quarter. Manning got a goal on the man-up and Mic Kellynetted his 19^th of the campaign to make it a three-goal game for the third time.

Ohio State got back-to-back tallies in response push it back to a five-goal lead with 6:42 to go.

Manning completed his 10^th career hat trick to make it a 14-10 game with 5:31 to go.

Ohio State got an empty net goal to make it 15-10 with 2:24 to go and Jack Tortolanigot the final goal of the game on Denver’s final man-up chance of the afternoon.

UP NEXT:
Denver will play its only neutral site game of the regular season next weekend when the Pioneers travel to Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas on Saturday to take on Duke.