WASHINGTON D.C. – The [18/18] University of Denver men's lacrosse team scored six of the final seven goals but couldn't completely overturn its 14-8 fourth-quarter deficit, falling to Villanova 15-14 in the first BIG EAST Semifinal on Thursday evening at Cooper Field.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Alex Simmons scored a career-high six goals to go with an assist for a season-high seven points in the loss. Graduate student Jack Hannah netted his eighth hat trick of the season and the 20^th of his career. Johnny Marrocco also had a three-point night with two goals and a helper.
 
Simmons sock trick was Denver's first sock trick in a conference tournament game in program history.
 
Alec Stathakis won 17-of-32 faceoffs, and picked up six ground balls, including winning six of the eight faceoffs in the fourth quarter.
 
First Quarter:
Villanova controlled the opening quarter, winning six of the eight faceoffs and scoring five of the seven goals in the first 15 minutes of play in the nation's capital. Hannah answered a pair of Wildcats' tallies to cut the deficit in half with 11:25 to go.
 
Simmons cancelled out a Patrick Daly goal to make it 3-2 Villanova, but the Cats got the final two and held the Pioneers without a goal in the final 9:02 of the quarter to take a three-goal lead into the second frame.
 
Second Quarter:
Villanova pushed its early lead to 6-2, before back-to-back goals from Simmons and Marrocco got Denver back to within two with 12:17 to play in the opening half.
 
The Wildcats ran off their second three-goal stretch of the half to take their first five-goal lead of the evening.
 
Simmons sixth hat trick of the season and the 11^th of his career put an end to the run with 7:53 to go on the clock. Villanova got it back to five at 10-5 ahead of Marrocco's second of the opening half to cut the margin back to four with 3:37 left in the second.
 
Villanova had the answer again to make it 11-6 before Simmons' fourth of the half that tied his season high came off a feed from Riley Curtis on the extra man and sent the two teams into the locker room with Villanova leading 11-7.  
 
Third Quarter:
Scoring cooled off in the third quarter, but Villanova managed to pad its lead to five. Curtis had the only Pioneer goal of the third.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Villanova struck first in the fourth to get its first six-goal lead at 14-8 before the Pioneers reeled off three goals in a span of 1:23 to cut the margin in half with 11:54 to play. Hannah, Ted Sullivan and Simmons had the goals to spark the fourth-quarter spurt. Hannah's 33^rd of the season and Simmons' first career sock-trick goal made it 14-13 with 3:47 to play. Denver got a couple looks to tie the game, but Campbell netted an empty net goal on the other end to make it 15-13 with 20 seconds to play.
 
Casey Wilson's second of the season off the faceoff brought Denver back to within one with 11 seconds in regulation, but the Wildcats mucked up the next faceoff and limited Hannah to a midfield shot with 0.6 seconds remaining to end the game.
 
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