DENVER – The University of Denver men's lacrosse program opened the game on an 18-0 stretch to run away from Cleveland State 20-1 in both teams' season opener on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
LEADERS:
Chase Bruno led Denver in points with five in his Pioneer debut after transferring from RIT. Bruno netted a pair of 2-of-5 shooting and had three assists.
 
Cody Malawksy and Watt Muir each had hat tricks for the Pioneers. Malawsky added a helper for a four-point day.
 
Rory Graham added four points as well with a pair of goals and two helpers.
 
In his Pioneer debut, Luke Smeader went 10-for-14 from the faceoff stripe, picking up three ground balls.
 
On the defensive side of the ball, Seamus Faulkner led the Pioneers with three caused turnovers. Russell Overly also added a pair of thefts.
 
Grayson Manning made seven saves and didn't allow a goal in 40:16 in the starting role for the Pioneers.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Denver opened the 2026 season on an 8-0 run in the first frame. Lucas Klokiw scored his first of the campaign off a feed of Joe Taraboletti. Just 12 seconds later, Chase Bruno found the back of the net to make it a 2-0 game. Redshirt junior Cody Malawsky got his first off a feed from Tzagournis, his first of an opening-quarter hat trick in the season opener.
 
Rory Graham scored on the man-up off a feed from Bruno. Malawsky then scored back-to-back 1:25 apart to make it 6-0 with 7:!6 to go in the frame.
 
Gordon Reynolds netted Denver's first pole goal of the year and Graham's second of the half ended the first quarter scoring with 4:57 to play.
 
Second Quarter:
Klokiw netted the first goal of the second quarter as well to make it 9-0 Pioneers. Chris Merageas scored his first of two in the second frame, sandwiching his goals around tallies from Daniel Clark and Watt Muir.
 
Grayson Manning made six saves in the first half, and the Pioneers committed just four turnovers in the first 30 minutes.
 
Third Quarter
Denver's 14^th goal to break the Pioneers scoring run record came from Sam Trumble in transition to open the second half. Luke Shinofield added a 15^th on the following possession off Bruno's third helper of the day.
 
Muir netted his second to stretch the Pioneers run to 16 at the midway point of the third quarter. Bruno's second made it 17 and then Muir completed his hat trick with under five minutes to play in the third to make it 18-0.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Will Adair got Cleveland State on the board with 11:16 remaining in regulation, but Jimmy Douglas earned his first career goal to restore the lead to 18 with under 10 minutes to play. Wyatt Hurd added his first career goal to sound out Saturday's scoring.
 
NOTES:
Denver scored eight goals in the first quarter, its most goals in a quarter since February, 2022, against Canisius.
The Pioneers scored the first 14 goals of the game, the longest scoring run in program history.
DU got goals from 12 different players in the season-opening win.
Denver had 10+ different players score in a game for the 25^th time since the start of the 2015 season.
DU had six different players score multiple goals in the win.
The Pioneers also had 5+ players score multiple goals for the 23^rd time since the start of the 2014 campaign.
 
UP NEXT: Denver will continue a stretch of four of its first five at home next Saturday when the Pioneers welcome Air Force up I-25 for a 12 p.m. MT faceoff. The game from Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium will be streamed on Midco Sports Plus and 104.3 The Fan HD3.
 
TICKETS: Tickets for the 2026 season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
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