Box Score Liam Rooney and James Meager each scored four times, helping Denison earn a convincing 20-2 win over DePauw University on Monday night in Greencastle, Ind. The win improves Denison's record to 1-2 and sets the team up for Saturday's home opener versus Sewanee.
The Denison offense got off to a bit of a slow start, scoring only two goals off 14 shot attempts in the first quarter. The second quarter saw the Big Red's accuracy improve as they scored eight goals via 21 shot attempts. Rooney scored three of his four goals in the second quarter and Jamie McCahan added a pair of scores in the period.
Leading 10-0 at the intermission, Rooney would put the first goal of the second half on the board off a feed from Will Donohue. Meager would follow his third and fourth goals of the contest and with under two minutes to go in the third, Nick Bortolani joined the party with his first goal of the season.
In the fourth quarter, DU would score six more times, adding two EMO goals to the stat sheet. Blair Farinholt and Alex Paulus provided the man-up goals for Denison in the fourth quarter. DU's two prior man-up scores came from Meager in the third and Rooney in the second.
Rooney led the team in points with seven (4 goals, 3 assists). Meager followed with four goals off seven shot attempts and Donohue chipped in one goal, three assists and five ground balls. Eric Baumgardner won 15-of-20 faceoff attempts and finished with five ground balls. Ben Duhoski was 4-of-6 on draw attempts.
Denison made life difficult for DePauw at the faceoff X and things were equally problematic in transition as the Tigers struggled in clearing situations going just 5-of-20. The Big Red outshot the Tigers 72-11.
First-year Elliott Avis played 47 minutes in goal and saved the only shot he faced. Clark Bullington played the final 13 minutes and stopped two shots while facing four. DePauw goalie Zach Taylor played all 60 minutes and finished with 16 saves.
Denison will be back in action on Saturday (March 7) when they host Sewanee at 1 p.m.
