After a long offseason wait, new Denver head coach Matt Brown, who succeeded Bill Tierney, the greatest coach in men’s lacrosse history, finally made his debut against #5 Johns Hopkins (0-1, 0-0 Big Ten) at Homewood Field in Baltimore. And his first game most certainly did not disappoint as his #14 Denver Pioneers (1-0, 0-0 BIG EAST) overcame its own sloppiness to erase an 11-7 deficit in the 4th quarter to earn a 13-12 overtime victory. Attack JJ Sillstrop recorded a sock trick – scoring six goals – including a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation to force overtime and the game-winner.

There were many questions surrounding these Pioneers as the season got underway. What would Brown’s and offensive coordinator Dave Metzbower’s new-look offense do? How much of an advantage will returning 100% of their goals from a year ago be? Can their clearing game be clean enough to allow them to win some games? The answers to all of those questions came early.

Denver opened the scoring just a minute into the game as Jack Tortalani beat JHU goaltender Chayse Ierlan, younger brother of former Pioneer FOGO TD Ierlan. The goal came with 31 seconds remaining on the shot clock and kind of ushered in a new DU offensive era, pushing the issue offensively early in the possession, something they had not done since the institution of the 80-second shot clock in 2016.

But from there, Denver struggled to maintain possession and string together any kind of run. In the first three quarters, the Pioneers turned the ball over seven times and struggled in their clearing game. In total, they went just 17/21 on clears. Bounces weren’t going their way, the officials were making wildly inconsistent calls to the Pioneers’ detriment, and the first three quarters of the Matt Brown era were largely forgettable. Despite some heroic defensive efforts to keep the Blue Jays to just 11 goals, the Pioneers entered the 4th quarter down by four, 11-7.

As soon as the clock reset to 15:00, though, it’s like the visitors flipped a switch. Cody Malawsky pulled the Pioneers back to within three with a man-up goal with just 8 minutes left before Stephen Avery closed the gap to two a few minutes later to give Denver a glimmer of hope. Johnathan Peshko then scored what looked like would be the dagger for Hopkins.

JJ Sillstrop, who had already found the score sheet twice, went to work from there. He scored two more goals less than three minutes apart, bolstered by some big defensive stops and caused turnovers and then, with barely two seconds left and after JHU’s Scott Smith was flagged for illegal contact to the head – a two-minute non-releasable penalty – Malawsky found Sillstrop on the restart who wired a shot past Ierlan with less than a second left to tie the game at 12 and send it to overtime. After what transpired in the hour and a half before Denver’s 5-1 fourth-quarter run, going to overtime felt like a win by itself. But Sillstrop wasn’t done.

Faceoff specialist Alec Stathakis, who went 14/26 (.538) on the day, lost the man-up faceoff to open extra time due to what amounted to an unfortunate bounce and it allowed the Blue Jays to kill off most of the rest of Smith’s penalty. But, with just under 30 seconds left in the extra-man opportunity, Denver successfully cleared and took a timeout to draw up the game-winning play which, as you might have suspected, was designed to get the ball to Sillstrop. After some passing, Cody Malawsky again found DU’s star attacker, this time down low to the right of the crease and Sillstrop wired his shot high past Ierlan’s stick and found twine. Game over. Denver wins.

It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch. For much of the game, the Pioneers shot themselves in the foot with turnover after turnover and failed clear after failed clear. The defense, though, which most believed would be this team’s strength, lived up to the preseason hype and made sure the Blue Jays didn’t run away with the game and kept it within striking distance for Sillstrop and his offensive teammates. There are myriad issues that Matt Brown and his staff need to clean up, namely in transition, as the season wears on. But those issues are a hell of a lot more fun and easier to work on after a thrilling comeback overtime victory than after a crushing defeat.

There is so much to like about these Pioneers and this gritty, character victory is an indication, Matt Brown’s first season has a chance to be extremely special.

Top photo of JJ Sillstrop courtesy of Denver Athletics