#4 ranked/#1 seed Denver men’s lacrosse (11-3, 5-1) traveled to Villanova, Pennsylvania to face the Wildcats in a BIG EAST Conference semifinal tilt Thursday afternoon. Denver lost their clean sheet against conference rivals, falling to the unranked Wildcats 10-9 and missing out on the BIG EAST finals.
Denver fell into an early 4-0 hole in the first ten minutes of the game. Jack Benedetto broke the ice for Denver at 2:50 of the first quarter. Villanova responded with two Matt Licata goals. DU’s Mic Kelly scored the final goal of the first half, 6-2. DU left the field of play looking dazed- completely outplayed in the first half.
The third quarter was a different story. Denver reeled off five straight second-half goals, capped by a JJ Sillstrop Sports Center goal for a 7-6 DU lead with 2:06 left in the third quarter. Sillstrop scored three of DU’s goals during the six-goal run.
Pioneers with 6 unanswered to take the lead‼️ https://t.co/mA6SObRkVI
— BIG EAST Conference (@BIGEAST) May 2, 2024
The Wildcats Sam Parkinson’s opened the fourth quarter scoring, 7-7. Three minutes later Nova’s Thomas McIntyre scored for the Wildcats and the lead. A minute later, Denver responded when Jack Tortolani tied the game up, 8-8. Once again, Nova grabbed the lead at 4:39 when Tyler Boes gave Villanova yet another lead 9-8. Denver tied the game on a quick assist from Joshua Carlson to Cody Makowski for the finish at 1:45, 9-9. Nova got the ball back and scored with 36 seconds left for their third lead of the quarter. DU went down the field with the clock running down and Michael Lampert looked to score near the cage with 2 seconds left, falling on a diving Wildcat goalie Anthony Wilson. Lampert was called for a crease violation. Final score 10-9.
Denver was outscored 4-2 in the final quarter and committed 22 turnovers during the game. Ultimately, it was the early 4-0 hole that put Denver on their back foot and turnovers narrowed their path to victory. Denver must wait for the NCAA selection show to learn of their opponent and see if their early BIG EAST Conference Tournament exit hurt their home-field hosting chances.
UGH!
Credit to unranked Villanova (Just 2-3 in Big East Play this year), who deserved to win today by building a big first half lead on #4 ranked DU, surviving DU’s second half comeback bid, and scoring four fourth-quarter goals when the game was on the line to delight their home fans..
DU came out so flat at the start, so error prone and unmotivated that the first half of the game was almost unwatchable for Pio fans. DU did show some character to claw back in the third quarter and take the lead in the second half for a bit, only to gag it up in the end, perhaps fittingly. Ugh.
Honestly, DU only played well for about 40% of this game, and the 22 total turnovers they served up to Villanova was the brutal evidence.
We’ll see where the NCAA puts the Pios on Sunday’s selection, but this was a bad loss today…
Let’s hope DU gets to work in practice this week and shows up with more fire, ball control and precision in the NCAA tournament…
Wish I knew the rule well enough to evaluate the last crease call. Seemed like the DU player entered one of those zones with a decent amount of self generated momentum, but the goalie moved towards the DU player to cause the actual collision. Anyway, don’t know whether to feel bad about the call, but the refs reviewed it, so I assume it was correct call. But sucks that we lost!
Honestly, there wasn’t much to argue on the call.
Lampert landed on the goalie in the crease, and that made the ref’s call to waive-off the goal a pretty easy one, as that kind of incoming opponent-to-goalie contact is the very reason why the crease rule exists in the first place.
If you watch the video, DU Coach Matt Brown didn’t argue against the call either, and I think the refs just reviewed it for the optics of fairness. Too little, too late.
Yes – it sucks that we lost, but it was Villanova, the 22 Pio turnovers and some bad fourth quarter DU defense that did the Pios in, not the refs…
We are so overrated. We’re just not that talented. Providence looked much better than our beloved Pios. Hopefully RPI gets us the best possible way to do some damage in the tourney. Our Hopkins, Gtown, and Cornell wins have stood the test of time, so far.