DENVER - Three goal efforts in the second half by senior Mike Law (Englewood, Colo.) and junior Chad Wittman (Colorado Springs, Colo.) propelled the University of Denver men's lacrosse team to an upset win over No. 22 Ohio State, 13-7 on Friday night (April 20) at Pioneer Field. Denver earns its first Great Western Lacrosse League win of the season and improves to 4-5 overall, 1-1 in the GWLL. Ohio State drops to 6-5, 1-3.
The Buckeyes came out in the opening minutes of the contest and dominated play on both ends of the field. The Pioneers were unable to register a shot in the first seven minutes of the game and fell behind early when Ohio State struck first with two goals eleven seconds apart by John Cummings and Sandy Boyce that put OSU ahead 2-0 at 8:04 of the first quarter. With five minutes remaining in the opening frame sophomore Adam Stifel (Bethesda, Md.) fired a rocket from 15 yards out to put Denver on the board and cut the lead to 2-1. Ohio State added a goal in the final seconds to take a 3-1 into the first recess.
Ohio State opened the second quarter where they had left off with its second unanswered goal early in the period. Stifel contributed his second goal of the night midway through the quarter to cut the deficit to two goals and senior Kenny Crowley (Darien, Conn.) scored his fourth marker of the year with five seconds left in the half to pull Denver to within one goal, 4-3 going into halftime.
"All week this team has been feeling confident and tonight we came out and played like it," said Crowley. "The halftime score didn't phase us at all. We used my goal at the end of the quarter as momentum for the second half and came out with a great deal of intensity. Give credit to our crowd tonight, they were awesome. Our fans rallied behind us when we needed it and gave us the energy we needed to pull away in the third quarter."
The Pioneers used Crowley's last second heroics as momentum in the third quarter by scoring three unanswered goals in the opening minutes of the stanza. Law's first goal of the night at 4:18 gave Denver its first lead of the game 5-4. The Buckeyes ended Denver's scoring barrage with an extra-man goal by Boyce at 5:53, which cut Denver's lead to one goal, 6-5. The Pioneers added two more unanswered goals in the quarter and one in the fourth to pull ahead 9-5 at 2:03 of the fourth period.
Ohio State mounted a rally minutes later with a goal by Anthony Kelly that pulled OSU to within three goals, 9-6 at 3:22, but the Pioneers were able to respond with goals by Wittman and senior Travis Taylor (Colorado Springs, Colo.) to stymie the Buckeyes threat. OSU added a goal midway through the final frame, which was followed by back-to-back goals by Law to give Denver its final margin of victory, 13-7.
For the game Denver dominated all statistical categories by out-shooting Ohio State 35-22 (26-7 in the second half), out-hustling for ground balls 32-19 and winning 14 of the 24 face-offs.
"This was a big win for us tonight," said Wittman. "After having the last two weeks off we were all ready for this game."
"We haven't played very well at home this year," said Law. "So we knew we had to pull together and battle tonight. This team played great offense and defense and showed a lot of heart."
"We have been playing solid all year long, it was just a matter of time before things started going our way," said Denver head coach Jamie Munro. "This win was because of a great effort by both the offense and defense."
Denver returns to action next Friday, April 27 for its second game of a three-game home stand when they play host to Butler in a Great Western Lacrosse League battle. Face-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. MST.
