DENVER The No. 21 University of Denver men’s lacrosse team (5-4) fell 9-8 to visiting Drexel University (4-4) on Tuesday night at the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

 

Freshman Alex Gajic (Burnaby, British Columbia) led the Pioneers with a hat trick, his second consecutive game with three or more goals, but it wasn’t enough as Denver dropped its first home game of the season.

 

Junior Charley Dickenson (Dallas, Texas) scored two goal and had two assists, while junior Ben Wahler (Denver, Colo.) scored his first goal of the season, third of his career.

 

Dickenson had the first shot attempt for Denver, however Drexel put the first point on the board, as Scott Perri netted an unassisted shot past Pioneer goalie Peter Lowell (Freeport, Maine) with 9:03 remaining in the opening stanza.

 

After allowing another Dragon goal, this time by Greg Casey, Gajic answered with his 13th goal of the season on a pass from Dickenson to put the Pioneers within one with 1:44 remaining in the first period.

 

Drexel started the second quarter with an early goal by Scott Perri at 12:32 mark, while Joe Wojciechowski followed it with the Dragons’ fourth goal of the night with 11:10 remaining.

 

Facing a three-goal deficit, Gajic added his second of the game as he slipped a Deke Jackson (Boise, Idaho) pass over the head of Dragon goalie Mark Manos at the 10:37 mark to cut the deficit to two.

 

With 7:38 remaining in the second period, Drexel once again took a three-goal advantage off an unassisted goal by Colin Ambler and then took a four-goal lead with 57 seconds remaining before the break off a goal by Kyle Bergman.

 

The Pioneers fought back in the third period when Dickenson started scored his eighth goal of the season with 12:00 remaining in the third period. Less than two minutes later, senior Cliff Smith (Surrey, British Columbia) added another for Denver, converting a pass from John Dickenson (Dallas, Texas).

 

Drexel halted Denver’s scoring run as Ambler scored his second unassisted goal of the gamewith 9:37 left to play.

 

The Pioneers then added three consecutive goals to tie the game at 7-7, as Wahler, Gajic and Dickenson all scored.

 

Drexel’s Wojciechowski added his second goal of the night with 6:42 remaining to end the stalemate, while Brian Neary put the game out of reach with his first goal of the game with 2:22 remaining.

 

With 2:00 remaining, the Pioneers attempted to make a comeback as senior Joey Murray (Denver, Colo.) scored his 17th goal of the season to cut the Dragons’ advantage to one. Denver continued to put on the pressure, but was unsuccessful as it failed to capitalize on its final three shots.

 

For the game, Denver held the advantage in shots 34-32, while also tallying 14 saves compared to the Dragons’ 10. Lowell’s 14 saves ties a career high, which he set earlier this season against Towson. The Pioneers also were also a perfect 6-of-6 in face-offs in the fourth period, holding the overall advantage 12-of-20 compared to Drexel’s 8-of-20.

 

The Pioneers head to Louisville, Ky., for a game against Bellarmine on Sunday, March 29 with face-off slated for 11 a.m. (MT)

 

- PIONEERS -