DENVER (Mar. 8) Chad Wittman (Colorado Springs, Colo.) scored five goals, Mike Law (Englewood, Colo.) chipped in three goals and an assist, and Brian Berger (Phoenix, Md.) turned away 9 shots to propel the University of Denver (4-0) to a win over Penn State (1-2) Wednesday night at the Cherry Creek Stutler Bowl. The victory marks the first time in the program's history that they have started a season 4-0.

The Nittany Lions got on the board first with a goal by Will Driscoll to give them a 1-0 lead at 9:46, but the Pioneer offense would retaliate with a marker of their own when Wittman notched his first tally of the night with an unassisted man-down goal at 8:12 to tie the game at one. Penn State added a late goal at the end of the first quarter and held a 2-1 advantage going into the first recess.

The Lions came out in the second quarter with guns drawn and capitalized with a goal by Don Mayerhofer to give them a 3-1 advantage at 13:45. Denver's sniper Law took control after that and scored three unanswered goals to give the Pioneers their first lead of the night, 4-3 at 5:33. Penn State answered with a late goal by Driscoll to knot the game 4-4 going into halftime.

Denver stormed out of the locker room in the third quarter and never looked back. Wittman scored two unanswered goals at 11:39 and 5:13 to give the Pioneers a 6-4 lead. The defense withstood the Lions offensive pressure and denied them a shot on goal in the quarter. Wittman added his fourth goal of the night at 10:30 of the fourth quarter to extend the Denver lead to 7-4. Penn State mounted an attack late in the game with a goal at 9:42 to pull within two, 7-5, but Wittman answered back with his fifth tally of the evening late in the contest at 2:06 to give Denver its final margin of victory of 8-5.

The Pioneers look to extend their winning streak to five games on Saturday, March 11, when the 15th ranked Fighting Irish of Notre Dame come to town for a Great Western Conference opener. Game time is at 1:00 p.m. MST.

Denver vs. Penn State
Men's Lacrosse Game Summary
March 8, 2000

                        SCORE           SHOTS               GOALTENDER (SAVES)PENN STATE (1-2-0)      2-2-0-1--5      9-13-2-4--28        Matt Vallone (3-3-8-4--18)DENVER (4-0-0)          1-3-2-2--8      5-9-13-8--35        Brian Berger (2-5-0-2--9)SCORINGFIRST PERIODG1      PS-Will Driscoll (Don Mayerhofer)............9:46G2      DU-Chad Wittman (unassisted).man-down goal...8:12                       G3      PS-Tim Emmick (Will Driscoll)................1:35SECOND PERIODG4      PS-Don Mayerhofer (unassisted)..............13:45G5      DU-Mike Law (Travis Taylor).................13:07G6      DU-Mike Law (unassisted)....................11:19G7      DU-Mike Law (unassisted).....................5:33G8      PS-Will Driscoll (unassisted)................1:20THIRD PERIODG8      DU-Chad Wittman (unassisted)................11:39G9      DU-Chad Wittman (unassisted).................5:13FOURTH PERIODG10     DU-Chad Wittman (Mike Law)..................10:30G11     PS-Tim Emmick (unassisted)...................9:42G12     DU-Chad Wittman (Geoff Bieging)..............2:06GROUND BALLS                            FACEOFFSPenn State - 10-7-3-6--26               Penn State - 11 wins, 8 lossesDenver - 9-12-14-13--48                 Denver - 8 wins, 11 lossesEXTRA-MAN OPPORTUNITIES                 PENALTIESPenn State - 2 for 5                    Penn State - 7 for 5:30Denver - 1 for 7                        Denver - 5 for 3:30