DENVER – The [16/17] University of Denver men's lacrosse program took the defending champs down to the wire, but a late 6-0 run in the fourth quarter sent [4/5] Cornell past the Pioneers 13-9 on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
LEADERS:
Attackman Marek Tzagournis had a natural hat trick in the second half and former Big Red midfielder Rory Graham scored twice for the Pioneers against his former team to lead the Pioneers offense. Sophomore goalie Grayson Manning had 11 saves in his first loss of the campaign.
 
Cornell's two key offensive weapons had seven points in the win, and faceoff specialist Jack Cascadden went 15-for-21, and led the Big Red faceoff group to a perfect 8-for-8 in the fourth quarter.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
Denver opened the scoring when Rory Graham scored against his old team, getting free on top of the crease and Chase Bruno found him for the easy tally. Cornell answered right back on the other end when AJ Nikolic curled around the top of the crease and buried it with 12:53 to go.
 
Off a save from Matthew Tully, Cornell struck in transition to take its first lead when Ryan Goldestein hit Willem Firth with 7:56 to play in the opening quarter. The Big Red got another juice goal in transition off the faceoff to double its lead just 28 seconds later. Graham put a stop to the run against his former teammates, spinning around the right wing and beating the Cornell keeper just under the crossbar to make it 3-2 with 4:37 to play.
 
Firth buried a Goldstein feed on one end to make it 4-2, and then Chase Bruno went behind the back five-hole to cut the Big Red lead back to one with 1:52 left in the first.
 
The quick-strike Cornell offense got two more in response in the next 25 seconds to make it 6-3 with 1:27 left.
 
Second Quarter:
Denver got a juice goal for its own when faceoff guy Luke Smeader buried a bouncer from 15-yards out to cut the deficit to two 17 seconds into the second quarter.
 
The Big Red pushed the lead back to three on a bouncer from 15-yards out by Luke Robinson at the 9:!5 mark of the frame.
 
Sam Trumble ripped the back of the net for the second-straight game, finishing a feed from Cody Malawsky to make it a 7-5 score with under nine to go before halftime.
 
After another big Grayson Manning save, Watt Muir buried a Daniel Clark feed with 4:22 to go to cut the Big Red margin to 7-6. Malawsky nearly leveled the score at seven on the man-up with 2:57 to go, but he rattled the pipe and Cornell was able to clear and eventually take that one-goal lead into the locker room.
 
Third Quarter
After allowing just one goal in the second quarter, Denver's defense blanked Cornell in the third and the Pioneers scored two on the other end to make it an 8-7 Denver lead heading into the fourth. Marek Tzagournis scored both goals in the frame off feeds from Watt Muir and Malawsky.
 
Fourth Quarter:
Tzagournis completed a natural hat trick to open the fourth quarter scoring with 12:16 to play to give Denver its biggest lead of the day at 9-7. From there on out the defending national championships ended the game on a 6-0 run, winning every faceoff in the fourth quarter and allowing Denver's offense to touch it just twice during the scoring run.
 
UP NEXT: Denver will close out a stretch of four of five at home to open the season when the Pioneers welcome Michigan to Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. Opening faceoff next Saturday is set for 1 p.m. MT.
  
TICKETS: Tickets for the 2026 season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
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