DENVER – The [8/9] University of Denver men's lacrosse team used a 12-5 second half to pull away from Cleveland State 16-8 on Sunday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
Denver's defense was the key to a 4-3 halftime lead. The Pioneers 16 caused turnovers as a team in the game tied for the fourth-most in a single game in Denver's Division I history, and the most in a game since causing 21 turnovers against Vermont in February of 2011.
 
Senior Dylan Gaines (Baltimore, Md.) had a career high five caused turnovers, good for a tie for fifth in Denver's single-game history, to go with four ground balls, while classmate Dylan Johnson (Englewood, Colo.) forced a career-high four turnovers (ninth in DU's DI single-game history) and scooped up three ground balls. Redshirt-senior LSM Matt Neufeldt (Naperville, Ill.) was the other Pioneer with multiple CTs, forcing two to go with five ground balls. Junior SSDM Danny Logan (Upper Arlington, Ohio) also picked up five ground balls and forced a turnover to go with his first assist of the season. Junior Alec Barnes (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) added four grounders in the defensive effort.
 
On the career charts, Gaines moved into third in caused turnovers in Denver's DI history with 46, passing Christian Burgdorf and Mike Riis. Johnson also moved up the charts into seventh with now 32 caused turnovers, good for seventh in DU's DI history.
 
Senior Alex Ready (Lancaster, Pa.) finished with nine saves, including four in the first quarter in the Pioneers victory.
 
On the offensive side junior Ethan Walker (Peterborough, Ontario) passed both Eric Law and Tyler Pace on Denver's career points list after his seven-point afternoon, moving his total up to 156. Walker's five goals on Sunday also took his career number to 97 in that department, passing both Mike Law and Alex Demopoulos to move into seventh in Denver's DI history. Walker's hat trick was also the 20^th of his career.
 
Freshman Ellis Geis (Tustin, Calif.) continued his hot start to the season with a season-best four points on two goals and two assists. Geis now has 13 points in four games this year on 10 goals and three helpers. Classmate Alex Simmons (Smithville, Ontario) had two goals and his first career assist to bring his season total to eight points. Senior Colin Rutan (Walnut Creek, Calif.) rounded out Denver's multi-goal scorers with his fourth and fifth of the campaign.
 
Walker gave the Pioneers the lead just over four minutes into the opening period with his fourth goal of the weekend and his fifth of the season. Cleveland State tied it up at 1-1 less than a minute later before Simmons sandwiched two goals around Geis' ninth of the season to make it 4-1 Denver. The Vikings scored twice in the final 8:14 of the half, cutting Denver's lead to one at the intermission.
 
Cleveland State won seven of the nine faceoffs in the first half, but the Pioneers caused seven of Cleveland State's 13 first-half turnovers to make-up the possession difference, while turning it over just four times themselves after losing it 20 times on Saturday.
 
Denver didn't waste its time coming out of the locker room, getting Walker's second goal of the day 11 seconds into the third quarter and Geis' second 38 seconds after that. The Pioneers answered Cleveland State's first goal of the half with a 6-1 run courtesy of goals from Jack Hannah (Milford, Ohio), Rutan, Walker, Colton Jackson (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Walker again and Rutan again.
 
In the fourth quarter, Denver got a first goal since 2017 for Kyle Smith (New Canaan, Conn.) and first career goals for freshmen Johnny Marrocco (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Sam Dwinell (Dedham, Mass.).
 
Following a 20 turnover day on Saturday, the Pioneers limited the mistakes to 11 turnovers on Sunday, including just six in the first three quarters.
 
Denver lost the faceoff battled for the first time since May of 2016, but freshman Brett Boos (Parker, Colo.) did manage to win seven second half faceoffs after losing seven of the first nine draws.
 
UP NEXT: The Denver men's lacrosse team, Presented by Your Hometown Toyota Stores, will get right back on a plane to the state of North Carolina next weekend when the Pioneers take on the Tar Heels of UNC on March 2 at 9 a.m. MT. The game can be streamed live on ACC Network Extra and heard live on ESPN Denver 1600.
 
TICKET INFORMATION: Single game tickets for the remaining home games are on sale, and can be purchased here.

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