Men's Lacrosse, Men's Sports

Malawsky Scores 5 as Denver Upends Utah in Snowy Thriller

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The beauty of lacrosse season in Denver, the Lacrosse Capital of the West, is that you have no idea what the weather is going to bring. It could be 70 and sunny on a perfect February Saturday afternoon or, like this afternoon’s matchup between the #14 Denver Pioneers (2-1, 0-0 BIG EAST) and Utah Utes (1-2, 0-0 ASUN), you can get a surprise blizzard. Then, add in a hungry Utes squad that jumped out to a 3-0 1st quarter lead, the Pioneers had to weather more than just the heavy snow at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium to come away with the 10-8 victory.

So yes, there was weather expected in Denver this afternoon. There was snow in the forecast. But the fact that the grounds crew needed to shovel the lines at multiple points during the game certainly surprised at least a few. The snow didn’t slow the Utes down, though. Luke McNamara, Cade Faulkner, and Jake Likes each scored in the opening two minutes and caught a frozen DU team by surprise. Starting goalie Malcom Kleban allowed the goals on three Utah shots and was quickly replaced by freshman Grayson Manning. Denver finally found the back of the net with under two minutes left in the opening quarter when Noah Manning scored while falling down.

But Denver didn’t find its first lead until nearly four minutes into the third quarter when Cody Malawsky scored his first two of his five goals on the day to make it 5-4. Joe Taraboletti scored less than two minutes later to cap a 6-1 Denver run and give the hosts a 6-4 lead but the Pioneers couldn’t find any separation on the scoreboard and actually went into the 4th quarter down 7-6.

The 4th quarter, though, was the Malawsky show. With the Pioneers needing to erase the one-goal deficit, the redshirt sophomore put on his Superman cape and recorded four points – a hat trick and an assist on Jack Tortalani’s 4th-quarter-opening goal – to take over the game and give the Pioneers the 10-8 victory. Thanks to Malawsky’s snowy heroics, Denver finished the game on a 4-1 third-quarter run. All Utah could manage was a single goal from Cade Faulkner.

Now, this is not to say Denver wholly dominated possession in the second half and fourth quarter, specifically. Grayson Manning played a massive role in the victory too, stopping 16 of Utah’s 21 shots on goal he faced, including three massive ones in the 4th quarter to allow Malawsky to control the final 15 minutes the way he did.

Denver now travels to Ithaca, NY to take on #3 Cornell next weekend at 9 am MT. That game will be televised on ESPN+.

Highlights

Top photo courtesy Isaac Wasserman/Clarkson Creative Photography via Denver Athletics

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