Feb. 14, 2003

Box Score

Denver, Colo. - The University of Denver men's lacrosse team opened up the season with a decisive 11-6 victory over Quinnipiac in Friday afternoon's game at Pioneer Field. Nine players recorded at least a point in the team effort, which gives the Pioneers a 1-0 record. Quinnipiac now falls to 0-1.

Quinnipiac controlled the tempo in the first half of the initial quarter and scored the first goal two minutes into the stanza. The Pioneers responded though, and scored three goals in 12 seconds, which gave them a lead they would never relinquish. Sophomore Darren Sasaki-Scanlon (Norwalk, Conn.) started the blitz with a goal from second-year player Greer Hanlon (Libertyville, Ill.) just before the seven-minute mark. Five seconds later sophomore Scott Davidson (Guilford, Conn.) won the face-off and took the ball in himself to put Denver up 2-1. The pace was kept by sophomore Matt Brown (Burnaby, B.C.) when he scored seven seconds later as senior Mike Kenlay (Wilmette, Ill.) emerged from the face-off battle with possession of the ball and found him streaking towards the net. With 3:59 on the clock the Pioneers tallied their final goal of the quarter when Kenlay fed a pass across the net to waiting sophomore Erik Swanson (Glenview, Ill.), who found net with a deceptively soft low shot. After the Braves added a second goal at the 3:10 mark the quarter ended with a score of 4-2.

Denver padded their stats in the next quarter with Brown scoring off his own rebound at 13:19 and Sasaki-Scanlon driving home a power-play goal off Brown's feed with 2:52 on the clock. The squad out shot Quinnipiac 11-3 in the quarter and 18-12 in the half.

In the third quarter the Braves looked to get back into the game and opened up play with the goals at the 11:49 and 7:58 mark to close within two goals. Kenlay answered for the Pioneers and recorded his third goal of the night after scooping up the ball at midfield and penetrated the defense. Swanson put the squad up by four again when he scored his second goal of the day with 57 seconds in the quarter.

Denver put the Braves away in the fourth with freshman Adam Miller (Columbus, Ohio), senior John Sanders (St. Louis, Mo.) and junior Andrew Huelskoetter (St. Louis, Mo.) adding goals to put the team up 11-4. Quinnipiac added two goals in the final minute but the effort game too late in the contest. Overall, the Pioneers out-shot the Braves 39-29.

Denver will take the field again when they host Manhattan on Saturday (Feb. 22) at 1:30 p.m. in the third-annual Pioneer Face-Off Classic.