DENVER - The University of Denver men's lacrosse team suffered its second home loss of the season in a disappointing 7-6 defeat to Dartmouth Sunday (April 1, 2001) afternoon at Pioneer Field. With the loss, Denver falls to 3-4 on the season. Dartmouth snapped a three-game losing skid and improves to 3-3 overall.
The Big Green opened the scoring early in the contest when attacker Scott Roslyn scored a fluke goal just over two minutes into the first quarter. Roslyn attempted to pass the ball from behind the goal, but the ball hit the back of Denver goalie Brian Berger's (Phoenix, Md.) stick and fell into the net. Dartmouth scored two more goals in the opening frame to take a 3-0 lead at 9:53. The Pioneers regrouped late in the period and got on the board when sophomore Adam Stifel (Bethesda, Md.) drove across the middle of the offensive zone and beat Dartmouth goalie Mike Gault to cut the deficit to 3-1 at 10:50.
Denver carried the momentum into the second quarter when junior Chad Wittman (Colorado Springs, Colo.) tallied his eighth goal of the year at 1:06 to bring the Pioneers to within one, 3-1. Dartmouth answered with an extra man goal by Roslyn just over a minute later to push the lead to 4-2. Denver senior attacker Mike Law (Englewood, Colo.) retaliated with a goal 12 seconds later to bring the Pioneers to within one goal, 4-3 at 2:44. Neither team was able to generate much offense late in the quarter and the half ended with Dartmouth clinging on to a one-goal lead.
The Pioneers stormed out of the locker room and started the third quarter with a bang when freshman Jeff Biggs (St. Louis, Mo.) picked up a ground ball off of the face-off and fired a shot that beat Gault and tied the contest, 4-4 just 10 seconds into the stanza. The Big Green responded with a goal on the ensuing face-off and re-took the lead, 5-4 just nine seconds later. Stifel tallied his second goal of the afternoon with a one-timer from Law's pass on the right side that tied the game 5-5 at 6:14, but Dartmouth struck again with a goal minutes later to take a 6-5 lead going into the final period.
The Pioneers pressured Dartmouth in the fourth quarter and fired 13 shots but were unable to get the ball past Gault who maintained the Big Green lead with some key saves in the period. Dartmouth exploited Denver's pressure with a fast-break goal late in the game to increase their lead to 7-5 at 11:33. The Pioneers continued to attack and celebrated Law's second tally of the game at 13:37 that pulled Denver to within one, 7-6. Denver won the following face-off but a costly turnover in the defensive end with 25 seconds remaining left the Pioneers stranded on defense when the horn sounded.
For the game the Pioneers out-shot Dartmouth 32-23, out-hustled for ground balls 26-19 and won nine of the 17 face-offs. Dartmouth scored one goal on two extra man opportunities and held Denver scoreless in its lone attempt.
Denver returns to action this Saturday, April 7 when play travel to South Bend, Indiana to open conference play in a Great Western Lacrosse League battle against the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Face-off is slated for 2:30 p.m. MST.
