DENVER – The [18/17] University of Denver men's lacrosse team outscored [RV/RV] Utah 4-1 in the first and third quarters en-route to a 12-4 win on Saturday afternoon in both teams' season opener at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Denver's defense held Utah to just 34 shots, 14 on goal and got 10 saves from a pair of goalies, including nine from starter Jack Thompson in the victory.
 
Denver had four players finish with multiple goals in-front of a big crowd on Saturday afternoon. JJ Sillstrop had two goals and a helper, Michael Lampert and Stephen Avery had a pair of tallies out of the first midfield and Andrew Atchison had two more for the Pios.
 
Colm Barnett and Noah Manning finished with two assists apiece to lead the Pioneers, which Manning paired with a goal of his own to tie Sillstrop with three points on the day.
 
Alec Stathakis had a solid day at the faceoff stripe, going 13-of-20 with six ground balls in his season debut.
 
First Quarter:
Ty Hussey opened the 2023 season with his first career goal, kick-starting a 3-0 run for the Pioneers in less than three minutes. Avery and Manning from Barnett were the other two goals in the Denver run, with Manning's coming on the man-advantage.
 
Utah got its first goal after Denver was called for a two-minute non-releasable penalty late in the first quarter. After the Utes goal, Stathakis won the faceoff and Lampert turned on the jets late in the shot clock to give Denver a man-up goal in consecutive games after not having scored a man-up goal since the 2021 season opener at Peter Barton against Utah.
 
Second Quarter:
A slower-scoring second quarter started with a Jordan Hyde goal for the visitors to cut the Denver lead to 4-2 with 11:46 to go. With 4:26 to play, Manning appeared to restore Denver's three-goal advantage, but the officials ruled that the shot came after the expiration of the shot clock and waved off the goal. Hyde converted in transition off the violation to trim the Denver lead to 4-3.
 
The Pioneers didn't let the two-goal swing change the momentum of the game, as Jack Tortolani got the final goal of the opening 30 minutes, the first goal of his Denver career, to send the Crimson and Gold into the locker room with a 5-3 advantage.
 
Third Quarter:
Lampert's speed was on display again to open the third quarter as his second-goal of the day pushed the Pioneers' lead back to three in the first three minutes of the quarter.
 
Hyde completed his hat trick for Utah with 10:08 to play in the third quarter, the Utes final goal in the last 25:08 of the season opener.
 
Denver started its game-ending 6-0 run with a man-up tally by Richie Connell. Sillstrop then scored his first of two goals down the stretch off a feed from Manning to give Denver an 8-4 edge with 6:08 to play in the third.
 
Avery's second sent Denver into the final quarter of play with a 9-4 advantage.
 
Fourth Quarter:
A pair from Atchison sandwiched around Sillstrop's second concluded the scoring in the contest. Manning's second assist came on the Sillstrop tally and Barnett assisted Atchison's second.
 
Game Notes:

• In his final season, head coach Bill Tierney improved to 430-147, including 158-54 in 14 seasons at Denver.
• Denver improved to 145-25 under Tierney when scoring double digit goals, and 160-29 under associate head coach and offensive coordinator Matt Brown.
• The Pioneers held Utah to four goals. Denver held Providence to three goals in April of last season, its lowest since February of 2020.
• Denver improved to 114-25 all-time at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium, including 83-16 under head coach Bill Tierney.
• Denver outshot Utah 36-34, including 20-14 on goal.
• The Pioneers won the ground ball battle 29-18.
• Both teams finished 2-of-3 on the man-advantage.
• Denver scored a man-down goal for the second-straight game (BIG EAST Semi vs. Villanova-  Casey Wilson). Prior to last year's semifinal, Denver hadn't scored a man-down goal since the 2021 season opener against Utah (Ethan Walker).

 
TICKETS: Single game tickets for the 2023 Denver men's lacrosse season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
UP NEXT: Denver will open its 2023 road slate next Saturday when the Pioneers head to Air Force. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. MT.  
 
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