DENVER – The [8/10] University of Denver men's lacrosse program improved to 2-0 in BIG EAST play with an 18-8 win over St. John's on Friday night under the lights at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
KEY PERFORMANCES:
Denver had 10 different goal scorers on Friday, led by hat tricks from Noah Manning and Mic Kelly. The Pioneers had four other student-athletes with multiple goals. JJ Sillstrop had two goals and an assist, Cody Malawsky matched Sillstrop's output, Richie Connell had two goals and two helpers and Stephen Avery added two tallies.
 
Chris Caldwell had a pair of caused turnovers to lead the Pioneers defense.
 
Alec Stathakis finished 18-of-27 from the faceoff stripe with nine ground balls.
 
NOTES:

• Denver produced its 30^th 10-1 run or better since Bill Tierney arrived in 2010, including its second since Matt Brown took over this offseason.
• The Pioneers had 10 different players score in a game for the 30^th time since Brown joined the staff in 2008. It was the third time this year (Cornell, LeMoyne) Denver has had 10 different goal scorers.
• Denver improved to 11-0 all-time against St. John's.
• The Crimson and Gold improved to 122-26 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
• Denver's top-ranked man-down unit went a perfect 5-for-5 on Friday night.
• DU's man-up went 2-for-4.
• DU scored 18 goals for the first time since a 2022 date with St. John's at PBLS.
• The Pioneers had just 11 turnovers and were 14-of-15 in the clear.  
• Noah Manning finished off his fourth hat trick of the season and the eighth of his career.
• Mic Kelly netted his third hat trick of the season and the fourth of his career.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
St. John's opened the scoring with 8:25 to go in the frame before the Pioneers went on a 10-0 run, including six goals in the first quarter. Noah Manning scored his 17^th of the campaign to get Denver on the board, followed by a low-to-high strike from Richie Connell to give Denver its first lead.
 
Stephen Avery's fifth of the season preceded Mic Kelly's 11^th of the campaign to make it 4-1, which was followed by another goal from Connell on top of the crease and beautiful footwork from Avery to make it 6-1 heading into the second.
 
Second Quarter:
Cody Malawsky opened the second-quarter scoring to keep the Denver run going. Joshua Carlson then picked a corner two minutes later off a Michael Lampert helper. Ty Hussey and another goal from Malawsky closed out the run.
 
St. John's scored the final two goals of the half and held Denver without a goal for the final 10:11 to send the teams into the locker room with the score at 10-3 Pios.
 
Third Quarter:
Denver turned an early St. John's turnover into the first goal of the second half, courtesy of JJ Sillstrop who netted his 20^th of the campaign. Kelly's second of the night came less than a minute later to stretch the Pioneers lead back to nine.
 
St. John's got the next two of the third to trim the margin back to the Pioneers halftime lead of seven.
 
The Pioneers answered with two more of their own. Kelly drew a slash and got pushed into the crease, but finished it anyway to complete his hat trick. Off the ensuing faceoff, Manning netted a man-up tally to stretch the lead back to nine.
 
The Red Storm closed out the third frame to make it 14-6 heading into the final 15 minutes.
 
Fourth Quarter:
St. John's pulled it back to within seven to open up the fourth quarter scoring before Lampert pulled off his trademark dodge from X to make it 15-7 and Noah Manning scored on the man-up to stretch the lead back to nine once more.
 
Lampert and Manning's tallies started a four-goal run that also included Sillstrop's second goal of the night and the first goal of the collegiate career of Marek Tzagournis.
 
St. John's closed out the scoring with its eighth goal of the night.
 
UP NEXT:
Denver will stay home for the second game in a stretch of three of four at home to regular season when the Pioneers welcome nationally-ranked Georgetown to Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday, April 13 at 12 p.m. MT. The game will be broadcast live on Altitude 2, Pioneer Vision and 104.3 The Fan HD3.
 
TICKETS:
Single game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.
 
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