Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Denver
Bucknell Men's Lax Turns Aside No. 18 Denver, 13-8
3/17/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
March 17, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Austin Winter (Boonton Twp., N.J./Mountain Lakes) registered three goals and two assists and Perry Menzies (Upperco, Md./Hereford) continued his recent scoring tear with three more goals, leading Bucknell to a 13-8 victory over No. 18 Denver on a mild, sunny day at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The win was Bucknell's second of the year over a ranked team and lifted its season mark to 3-4.
Brandon Buchmayr (Darien, Conn./Darien) scored twice and Mike Danylyshyn (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) tallied a goal and three assists for the Bison, who have now scored 31 goals in their last two games. Charlie Streep (New Canaan, Conn./Loomis-Chaffee) and Chris Palmer (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School) both added a goal and an assist.
Bucknell seemed to be in trouble early in this one, as Denver (4-3) erased a 2-1 deficit by scoring the first four goals of the second quarter. Mark Matthews, who scored four times in the first half, gave the Pioneers a 5-2 lead at the 9:41 mark of the second half.
But the Bison settled down and outscored Denver 11-3 the rest of the way. Only 32 seconds after the Matthews goal gave the Pioneers a three-score cushion, Menzies fired a tracer past the ear of goalie Peter Lowell for an extra-man goal. Menzies, the current Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week after scoring six times in two games against Notre Dame and Lafayette last week, did it again at even strength at the 6:47 mark to bring the Bison within one goal.
Buchmayr's second score of the day, a low shot through traffic from 18 yards out, tied it. After another Jake Clarke (Cos Cob, Conn./Greenwich) faceoff win, Danylyshyn feathered a nice interior pass to Winter for a point-blank goal and a 6-5 lead. With 3:03 left in the half Palmer made an acrobatic dodge moving left to right and scored to make it 7-5, then Matthews put the lid on a wild 10-goal second quarter with his fourth of the day with 45 seconds remaining, pulling the Pioneers within 7-6 at intermission.
With one second left in the half, Denver's Joey Murray was sent off on a holding call, meaning Bucknell started the third quarter with possession and an extra man, and it did not take long to restore the two-goal margin. This time Winter returned the favor with an assist to Danylyshyn, and the Bison had an 8-6 lead.
Menzies and Winter scored later in the period, then a key sequence occurred in the closing seconds of the third. First Andrew Lay scored for Denver on a hard shot off a feed from Alex Gajic with 15 seconds showing on the clock. But Clarke cleanly won the faceoff, grabbing one of his game-high eight ground balls in the process, earning Bucknell one final possession. It paid off when Tim Brandau (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh) slipped a pass across the crease to freshman Billy Eisenreich (Chatham, N.J./Chatham), who spun and scored from a tough angle with just three-tenths of a second showing.
That gave the Bison an 11-7 lead after three. Lay scored again early in the fourth to make it 11-8, but Streep quickly answered with another EMO goal - the Bison were 3-for-4 with a man advantage in the game - and Winter finished the scoring off a Palmer assist with 7:04 remaining.
Denver came into the game averaging 10.7 goals per game, but the Bison held the Pioneers to just two in the second half and three in the final 39:41. Bucknell finished with a 35-28 shot advantage and also won the ground ball and faceoff battles.
Matt Antonelli (Arnold, Md./Archbishop Spalding) was the winning goalie after coming on in relief of Nick Sciubba (Sea Cliff, N.Y./Salisbury School) in the second quarter. Sciubba made some tough saves early but fell victim to Denver's scoring flurry in the second quarter. Antonelli made five saves while yielding four goals, and just as important he was active defensively and on clears. He finished with six ground balls and helped Bucknell convert 22 of 25 clears.
This was Denver's first visit to Lewisburg in men's lacrosse. The teams had split the two previous meetings, both in Colorado.
Bucknell will be back in action on Saturday in Dallas, Texas, taking on Air Force as part of the Patriots' Cup showcase at Ford Stadium on the campus of SMU. Game time will be 2:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Eastern) and will follow Notre Dame vs. Vermont.
