Junior faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste broke the University of Denver career faceoff wins record (736) and tied the single-game faceoff wins record (26), while senior Connor Cannizzaro added a career-high nine points to lead the [4/6] University of Denver men’s lacrosse program to a 20-11 win over Georgetown on Saturday at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
Baptiste won 26 of 30 attempts to move to ninth in NCAA history in career faceoff wins. In addition, the Denver junior scooped up 17 ground balls to move into 19th in NCAA history in that category. The Denville, N.J., native also scored his fourth goal of the season, the middle goal in a three-goal in 16 second stretch for the Pioneers in the third quarter. Denver’s third quarter run extended out to five goals in 2:19.
A 2016 Tewaaraton Finalist, Cannizzaro’s career-high nine points bested his previous best by a point, a mark he reached three times earlier in his career. The senior’s nine points ties him for third in Denver’s single-game record book, a point behind performances from former Pioneers Wesley Berg and Jeremy Noble.
Cannizzaro’s nine points led a Denver attack unit that combined for 19 as sophomore Austin French tallied a career-high five on his first career hat trick to go along with two assists, while freshman Ethan Walker put up five points for the fourth time in nine games of his freshman season. Converted midfielder Connor Donahue added four points on two goals and two helpers and sophomore Nate Marano rounded out the multi-goal scorers on Saturday, the ninth time Denver has had at least five multi-goal scorers since the start of the 2014 season.
Denver got single tallies from six additional players to bring its unique goal-scorer count to 11, the 10th time Denver has had at least 10 different goal scorers since the start of the 2015 National Championship season.
The Pioneers (7-2, 1-0 BIG EAST) reached the 20-goal plateau for the first time since Feb. 26, 2012, when the Crimson and Gold buried 21 against Robert Morris.
Sophomore Alex Ready took the win between the pipes in 50:42 of action as he made seven saves before being replaced by freshman Josh Matte early in the fourth.
Georgetown (2-8, 0-2 BIG EAST) had six points come from Daniel Bucaro on a trio of goals and assists, along with two goals and one assist from Devon Lewis. Peter Conley rounded out the attack with a pair of markers. Nick Marrocco took the decision for the Hoyas after making six saves in 53:46 of action before Jack Stephenson and Nate Cornblatt split duties the rest of the way.
Both sides traded goals through the first quarter as Georgetown struck first on a rocket from Austin McDonald, but Denver came right back with a pair of markers from Walker, getting an assist from Cannizzaro and French in the process.
The Hoyas tallied the next three in the frame for a 4-2 lead before Donahue buried a pair of his own to close out the stanza with an evened 4-4 total heading into the second.
Senior Tyler Pace gave DU a brief lead at 5-4 after rifling a shot past Marrocco on a feed from sophomore Colton Jackson, but the visitors responded with a man-up goal from Conley to even the score once again at 5-5.
The hosts closed out the frame with a 3-1 burst for an 8-6 lead heading into the locker rooms, getting a goal each from French, junior Jeremy Bosher and Cannizzaro, while Baptiste took his 11th faceoff win late in the period to move into the top spot on Denver’s career faceoff leaderboard in under three years in the Crimson and Gold.
The Pioneers poured it on in the third quarter, connecting for an 8-1 run through the first 11 minutes as Cannizzaro, junior Sean Mayle, French, junior Joe Reid, Baptiste and Walker all got in on the action for a commanding 16-7 lead. The Hoyas had the final say of the third on a goal from Bucaro with 27 seconds remaining to set the score at 16-8 heading into the final period.
Denver outscored Georgetown 4-3 in the fourth on a pair of goals from Marano, a Cannizzaro man-up tally and the first career goal from redshirt-sophomore Ross Komenda.
