Denver Men’s Lacrosse Defeats Bellarmine 12-9 On Sunday

The University of Denver men’s lacrosse team (6-4, 1-0 GWLL) opened league play with 12-9 win over Bellarmine (6-4, 0-2 GWLL) on Sunday afternoon at the Owsley B. Frazier Stadium in Louisville, Ky.

Freshman Mark Matthews (Oshawa, Ontario) led all scorers with five goals and one assist, while freshman Todd Baxter (Madison, N.J.) finished with three goals and one assist. As a team, Denver tallied 40 shots and 27 ground balls for the game, while winning 14-of-24 face-offs and clearing on 18-of 22 attempts.

BU was led by Dereck Hopcroft’s four goals, while Sean Doyle finished with three goals and three assists. As a team, the Knights notched 45 shots and scooped up 27 ground balls, while winning 10-of-24 face-offs and being successful on 15-of-16 clear attempts.

Matthews provided the first point of the game, scoring a man-up goal with 10:55 remaining. Just 12 second later, BU provided the equalizer as Hopcroft scored on a pass from Chase Williams as the Knights had a man-advantage.

The Knights provided the next two goals as Ray Finnegan Jr., and Matt Campbell provided the 3-1 advantage. The Pioneers cut the deficit to one with one second remaining in the period ad Matthews scored his second of the game on a pass from John Dickenson (Dallas, Texas).

Denver evened the score with 4:18 remaining in second period as Baxter scored an unassisted shot, his eighth goal of the season. Matthews then scored his third goal of the game on a pass from senior Kyle Widerstedt (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) with 2:44 left to play in the second period.

The Pioneers then added two more goals over the final two minutes of action in the half as senior Joey Murray (Denver, Colo.) added his first of the game and Baxter added his second on a pass from freshman Jon Vande Werken (Columbus, Ohio) to give Denver a 6-3 lead heading into the locker room.

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