DENVER – The [12/12] University of Denver men's lacrosse team outscored Air Force in each of the first three quarters on its way to a 13-9 win over the Falcons on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
Inside the Box Score:
JJ Sillstrop made it back-to-back four-goal games for the junior, a five point afternoon for the Denver starting attackman.
Alex Simmons also had a hat trick for the Pioneers to bring his goal total to five on the year.
Jack Hannah,
Ted Sullivan and
Richie Connell all had multi-goal games to close out the scoring for the Pioneers. Sullivan had four points (2-2) and Connell had three (2-1).
From the dot
, Alec Stathakis went 17-of-26 with 10 ground balls.
Malik Sparrow had three caused turnovers and two grounders to lead the Denver defense.
Jack DiBenedetto and
Jake Edinger also finished with a pair of CTs apiece.
First Quarter:
Air Force struck first exactly four minutes into the contest to take a 1-0 lead, but the Pioneers responded with four of the next five to take a 4-2 advantage with 3:19 to go in the first. Simmons opened the scoring after a Sullivan shot fell out of his pocket on the wind up and hit Simmons in the air, and the senior buried his third of the season. Sullivan then scored a goal of his own a little more than a minute later.
Sillstrop answered Brenden Crouse's second goal of the day to make it 3-2 Pios and then Connell made it four different Denver goal scorers in the first quarter as the Pioneers took a 4-3 lead through the opening 15 minutes.
Second Quarter:
Denver scored the first three and four of the first five to start the second quarter to open up an 8-4 lead with 6:56 to play in the first half.
Sullivan found twine to make it 5-3 and then
AJ Mercurio hit Sillstrop in transition to make it 6-3. Sillstrop finished back-to-back tallies off a feed from
Riley Curtis to give Denver three goals in a 49-second span and pad the lead to four.
Air Force scored three of the final four of the half in the final 8:08 to cut the Denver lead to 8-6 at the intermission. Sillstrop had Denver's lone goal in the Falcons' run, his fourth of the day.
Third Quarter:
Connell's second of the afternoon and of the season opened the third quarter scoring as the team's went back and fourth at 9-6, 10-7, 11-8 and 12-9 crossing into the fourth quarter. Hannah had his first of two third-quarter tallies with 9:01 to go in the third, Simmons scored with 4:01 to play and Hannah rounded out for the third-quarter scoring off a feed from his fellow graduate-student to make it 12-8 Pioneers after three.
Fourth Quarter:
Both offenses went cold to start the fourth with Air Force getting the first goal of the period with seven minutes to play in regulation. Simmons converted a Sillstrop feed to complete his hat trick and round out the scoring on a chilly Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton.
Notes:
- Head coach Bill Tierney picked up his 150th Denver win in 198 tries on Saturday afternoon.
- Denver improved to 24-2 in the series, winners of the last 15
- JJ Sillstrop netted the fifth hat trick of his career.
- Alex Simmons stretched his active point streak to 24 games (47-30-77).
- Simmons hat trick was the sixth of his career.
- Jack Hannah stretched his point streak to 17 (38-9-47) games and his goal streak to 17 (38-9-47).
- Denver's five-year senior class improved to 41-16 in their time with the Crimson and Gold.
- The Pioneers had five different players score multiple goals in a game for the 20th time since the start of the 2014 season.
- Denver improved to 109-22 at home since Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium was built in 2005
- The Pioneers are 78-13 at PBLS under Tierney.
What's Next
The University of Denver men's lacrosse team,
Presented By Your Hometown Toyota Stores, will head east for the first time in the 2022 season next weekend when the Pioneers travel to [3/3] Duke. Faceoff is set for 12 p.m. ET/10 a.m. MT, and the game will be broadcast on ACC Network Xtra.
For the latest University of Denver updates on the coronavirus, click here.
TICKETS:
Season tickets for the 2022 Denver men's lacrosse season are on sale now, and can be
purchased here.
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