March 6, 2005

Box Score

DENVER - In front of a capacity crowd at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, in the final game of the 2005 Pioneer Face-off Classic, the University of Denver men's lacrosse team fell 10-8 to Towson this afternoon. The loss drops the Pioneers to 1-2, and Towson improves to 3-0.

Seniors Greer Hanlon (Libertyville, Ill.), Matt Brown (Burnaby, B.C.) and Scott Davidson, and junior Greg Weigel (Port Republic, Md.) all tallied two goals each, while Bobby Griebe led the Tigers with three goals.

"Towson played a great game, and at the same time, I thought our guys did many great things as well," said head coach Jamie Munro. "I am disappointed to be on the losing end of this game, but I am proud of the way our guys played."

The Pioneers ended the first period tied, 1-1. Jonathan Engelke put Towson on the board first, 6:36 in to the game. With less than two minutes remaining in the period Brown blasted it past Tiger's keeper Reed Sothoron to even the score.

Towson's Bobby Griebe scored five seconds into the second period from Matt Eckerl off the face-off. Brown replied with a man-up goal with off a feed from Geoff Snider (Calgary, Alberta) and Hanlon fired another shot past Sothoron for the second man-up goal to lead 3-2 with 12:43 remaining.

Soon after, the Tigers tied it up at three apiece on a unassisted goal from Nick Williams with 12:29 remaining in the second period. Davidson answered with an unassisted goal of his own to put Denver ahead, 4-3, with 10:39 remaining. Towson's Brian Vetter and Griebe each contributed goals to leave the Pioneers trailing, 5-4 at halftime.

Hanlon got things started for Denver with his second goal of the game 3:45 into the third period. Engelke helped give the one goal lead back to Towson at 6-5, but Weigel scored back-to-back goals from senior Darren Sasaki-Scanlon (Norwalk, Conn.) and freshman Brett Koll (Fort Collins, Colo.) which gave Denver a one goal advantage (7-6) heading into the fourth period.

The Tigers got two early goals in the fourth period from Todd MacMullan and a man-up goal from Griebe to lead by one, before Davidson fired it past Sothoron off a redirected pass from Sasaki-Scanlon to tie the game up for the final time at eight goals each. Denver was unable to answer two late goals from Vetter and Keith Obloj, which sealed the victory for the Tigers 10-8.

Denver out shot the Tigers 37-36 and held a 39-32 ground balls advantage, but Sothoron made 13 saves to help clinch the win.

Senior Christian Anderson (Madison, Conn.), junior Bart Sullivan (Dublin, Ohio), Brown and Davidson were all named to the all-tournament team.

In the earlier game today, Air Force downed Lafayette, 11-6. Will Meister led the Falcons with four goals and one assist, and Justin Kuchta added three goals and two assists. Jon Paulson led Lafayette with three goals.

The Pioneers will be back in action next weekend at Barton Stadium when the face-off against Penn at 10:30 a.m.