DENVER – The [7/7] University of Denver men's lacrosse program improved to 2-0 on the young season with an 11-9 win over Air Force on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
The two teams played through constant snow through the opening 45 minutes of play, a game that saw the squads combine for 40 turnovers during that stretch.
 
KEY PERFORMANCES:
Mic Kelly and Noah Manning led the Pioneers offense with hat tricks, while attackmen JJ Sillstrop and Richie Connell added two apiece in the two-goal win.
 
Alec Stathakis went 17-of-24 from the faceoff stripe, picking up eight ground balls in the contest.
 
Malcolm Kleban made a career-high 14 saves, stopping seven Air Force shots in each half.

NOTES: 

• Kelly finished with a career-high five points in the contest to lead Denver on a hat trick and two assists.
• Sillstrop (2-1) and Manning (3-0) also had three-point afternoons.
• Jack DiBenedetto tied a career-high with three caused turnovers.
• Adam Hangland, AJ Mercurio and Ryan Giles all had a pair of caused turnovers, setting a new career-high for Giles.
• SSDM Casey Wilson had a career-high five ground balls in the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Denver opened the first quarter on a 3-0 run in the first 11:50. Noah Manning scored twice on either side of a Lucas Klokiw's first career goal to give the Pioneers the early advantage. Cody Malawsky had two helpers in the run and AJ Mercurio had another assist in transition off a Malcolm Kleban save.
 
Air Force got the final goal of the period with 1:16 to go to send it into the second 3-1.
 
Second Quarter:
Mic Kelly scored right off the faceoff to make it 4-1 Denver before a 4-0 Air Force run to end the quarter. As the elements began to settle on the sticks, the two teams combined for 20 turnovers in the second quarter, including 13 for the Pioneers.
 
Air Force led 5-4 heading into the intermission. Alec Stathakis won 8-of-11 faceoffs in the first half and Malcolm Kleban had seven saves, including five in the second quarter.
 
Third Quarter:
Air Force scored first in the third quarter to extend its lead to 6-4 with 14:16 to play in the third frame. The Pioneers then responded with four-straight tallies to close out the quarter with an 8-6 advantage.
 
Kelly's second of the day off a feed from Stephen Avery made it a one-goal game with 10:45 before another 10 minute drought with no goals on the board.
 
Last week's hero JJ Sillstrop got on the scoreboard for the first time with 4:55 to go and tie things up at 6-6 before scoring his second-straight 2:35 later to give Denver the lead back at 7-6 with 2:20 to play in the quarter.
 
Kelly completed his hat trick with 39 seconds to go to send Denver into the final quarter break of the day with a two-goal advantage.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Air Force got on the board first in the fourth to pull back to within one with 13:23 to play.
 
Richie Connell tapped home a feed from Sillstrop to push the advantage to two before another Air Force run tied things up at 9-9 with 9:04 to play. Connell stopped the run though on the next possession and got Denver right back in-front at 10-9 with 8:11 left in regulation.
 
After Kleban's 13^th save of the afternoon, Denver got a settled possession on the offensive end. Connell drew a short trick match-up behind the cage, fed Kelly at the top of the box, who went right to Manning on GLE on the opposite post to complete his hat trick to give Denver an 11-9 lead with 3:54 to play.
 
Denver's defense stood tall down the stretch and held Air Force without another goal to hold on to the 11-9 win and improve to 2-0 on the campaign.
 
UP NEXT:
Denver will return to the road next weekend to take on Utah in Salt Lake City. Opening faceoff is set for 1 p.m. MT and will be streamed live on Pac 12 Stream.
 
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