DENVER – The University of Denver men's lacrosse program rode its defense in the first and third quarters, and the offense came alive with a five-spot in the second in a 10-2 win over Air Force on Saturday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
LEADERS:
Sophomore Grayson Manning led the Pioneers between the pipes with 14 saves, shutting out the Falcons in both the first and third quarters.
 
Marek Tzagournis conducted the Pioneers offense with five points on a goal and four assists. Sophomore attackman Watt Muir recorded his second hat trick in as many games, shooting 3-for-7 from the turf. Cody Malawsky added a pair and Chase Bruno made it four goals in his first two games with two more.
 
Luke Smeader went 8-for-14 from the stripe with four ground balls.
 
Defenseman Russell Overly had three CTS to lead the Denver defense, and Gordon Reynolds added two more.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
First Quarter:
The two goalies stood tall in the opening 10 minutes, a scoreless stretch that saw Grayson Manning make four saves and his counterpart Matt Deedy make five stops, including on the man-up.
 
Watt Muir broke the deadlock, finishing a feed in front of the crease by Marek Tzagournis to put the Pioneers on the board. Denver carried that 1-0 lead into the quarter break.
 
Second Quarter:
Air Force evened up the game 10 seconds in before the Pioneers kick-started a 5-0 run to end the half from the stick of Tzagournis. Muir added his second 1:22 later and Chase Bruno found the back of the net to stretch Denver's lead to 4-1 with 3:19 to play in the half. Cody Malawsky continued the run by dancing around the crease and finishing his fourth of the year to extend the Denver advantage.
 
The Pioneers capped the second-quarter surge with a late-clock goal as Tzagournis tallied his third assist to setup Luke Shinofield for the tally with seven seconds left.  
 
Third Quarter
After another defensive opening 12 minutes of the second half that saw Manning's save total get up to nine, Malawsky found the back of the net for the second time to stretch the Denver lead to six with 2:49 remaining. The flood gates opened once more when Bruno found the back of the net for his second time with 1:40 remaining in the stanza to make it 8-1 Pioneers.
 
Denver took the seven-goal advantage into the final quarter.
 
Fourth Quarter:
The Falcons scoring drought ended with 10:09 to go in the fourth quarter when Henry Spencer beat Manning, the first goal since the opening 10 seconds of the second quarter.
 
Muir completed his hat trick on Tzagournis' fourth assist and Joe Taraboletti made it 10-2 with 2:30 to go.
 
NOTES:
Denver's man-down D was perfect on its three kills, improving to 61-of-76 on the kill since the start of the 2024 season (80.2%).
The Pioneers improved to 27-3 against Air Force, including 15-1 at home.
DU is now 130-30 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium since the stadium was built in 2005.
Saturday's sellout (2049) was the 64^th in the stadium's history.
Denver has had at least one sellout in each of the last 15 seasons.
Denver reached double digit goals for the 222^nd time since Matt Brown joined the coaching staff in 2008, and improved to 186-36 in those games.
 
UP NEXT: Denver will stay in the mountain time zone when it heads to Utah next weekend for its road opener. Opening faceoff is set for 12 p.m. MT, and it will be streamed on ESPN+.
 
TICKETS: Tickets for the 2026 season are on sale now, and can be purchased here.
 
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