It was a day of firsts when No. 7 Denver and No. 5 Cornell squared off at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday.
The top-10 matchup was the first home contest against a ranked opponent for the Pioneers under first-year head coach Matt Brown, who ascended to the top spot after longtime DU coach Bill Tierney announced his retirement following the 2023 season.
When Denver ultimately emerged with a 17-16 victory, it was the first time the Pioneers had won that matchup in three meetings between the teams, and it spoiled Cornell’s first trip to Denver in program history, by far their longest road trip of the season.
“We’ve never beat Cornell,” Brown said. “We’ve beaten a lot of great programs both here and on the road. So, to take a historic program in our sport like that, that has multiple national championships and played in the final four two years ago, to beat them in this type of atmosphere and this type of fashion, that’s a great day to be a Pioneer.”
DU trailed for much of the game after back-to-back goals from Cornell’s CJ Kirst, a USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Preseason All-American. Kirst’s goals sparked a 5-2 run across the final eight minutes of the second quarter that allowed the Big Red to build a 9-6 lead at the break. Cornell led for the entire third quarter, despite the Pioneers closing to 11-10 midway through the period, and took a 14-12 advantage into the final 15 minutes.
But from there, it was all Denver in a multitude of ways. The Pioneers won all eight faceoffs in the fourth quarter, scored on both their man-up opportunities and came away with 15 of 20 ground balls.
JJ Sillstrop cut into the Big Red’s lead with the first goal of the fourth quarter, then Noah Manning whipped a shot between two Cornell defenders scrambling to close a gap, bulging the back of the net with a high finish to tie it 14-14 with 10:43 to go. The Big Red went back on top less than 90 seconds later on a goal from Willem Firth, an edge they would hold for more than three minutes before the Pioneers netted two goals just seven seconds apart to gain their first lead since the start of the second quarter. The first came when Manning found the net by tiptoeing around the crease and swatting home a goal.
On the ensuing faceoff, the ball squirted out toward the north sideline and directly to long-stick midfielder Ryan Giles. The senior made a beeline toward the cage and chopped in his first goal of the season from at least 25 feet away.
Richie Connell added a man-up goal with 4:55 to go, enough padding for Denver to survive Danny Caddigan’s tally in the game’s final two minutes.
While Manning’s five goals were a career-best mark, the Pioneers’ junior attackman shifted credit for the victory to the rope line and faceoff man Alec Stathakis.
“We have the best faceoff guy in the country in Alec Stathakis,” Manning said. “He’s the hardest-working guy on the field and he’s going to get us the ball.”
Beyond Manning’s big day, Sillstrop netted a hat trick for the Pioneers and Jack Tortolani added two more goals. Ten different players scored for Denver, which has now unseated two top-10 blueblood programs after beating Johns Hopkins 13-12 in overtime in Baltimore. That victory, too, took a comeback effort, something Brown said his program can handle.
“You’re never out of it in this sport, which we’re thankful for,” the DU coach said. “In some sports, you get down two or three scores and the next thing you know, the game might be over. Lacrosse is so action-packed and there are so many plays in the middle of the field. We have a phenomenal rope unit that can push the ball in transition and you saw that today with Casey Wilson getting a goal and Ryan Giles getting a massive goal in the fourth quarter.”
Cornell’s scoring was much more concentrated, led by Firth with four tallies. Kirst, Caddigan and Spencer Wirtheim chipped in three goals apiece.
Big Red coach Connor Buczek said his team maintained solid offensive intensity but needs to improve on discipline moving forward.
“Kudos to that Denver team,” Buczek said. “They’re well-coached, able to execute in a lot of situations and they fight. Every time we opened that gap they seemed to claw away at it. We need to get better at closing out some situations and maybe be a little more disciplined and stay out of the box. Obviously, that contributed at points to their run. Can’t take anything away from Denver because they’re a great team, but we need to keep getting better and hopefully this was a good learning moment for our team.”
