Box Score Denison's winning streak reached 17 following a 12-3 victory over Aurora University in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Division III Tournament from Piper Stadium. With the win, Denison will make its 13th appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Wednesday, May 18 at Salisbury University.
The victory also was special for Denison head coach Mike Caravana as he moved into first place in career wins at DU with 256, passing his predecessor, Tommy Thomsen who guided the Big Red from 1966-90 to a record of 255-97 (.724).
Sixth-ranked Denison outscored the Spartans 7-1 in the second half behind two goals and two assists by junior attackman Liam Rooney. The Big Red scored the three goals in a three-minute span in the opening quarter as Jake Waxter, Alex Paulus and Josh Happ got their team going.
Aurora's Alex Gebben stopped the run with 6:12 to play in the first quarter. The two teams entered the second quarter with DU on top 3-1. Two minutes into the second, Nick Bortolani fed Alex Paulus with his second goal of the game. Aurora struck back as leading scorer Trevor McNamara pumped in his 66th goal of the season, trimming Denison's lead to 4-2.
With just under seven minutes left in the first half, Aurora was flagged for two infractions, a 60-second slash on Ben Arends and a 30-second push on Will Bradshaw. That put the Big Red at a two-man advantage that was converted by Will Donohue off a pass from Blair Farinholt.
Over a 34 minute span that stretched from late in the second to the 1:50 mark in the fourth, the Big Red outscored Aurora 8-0.
Five different players scored two goals for Denison. Rooney led the team in points with five (2 goals, 3 assists). Farinholt had four points (2 goals, 2 assists) while Waxter, Paulus and Donohue all posted two-goal games. Bortolani had two assists while Josh Happ and Chris Haimbaugh rounded out the DU goal scoring.
Aurora committed 21 turnovers and nine were caused by the DU defense. Ben Duhoski paced the defensemen with three caused turnovers and four ground balls. Teddy Sawyer followed with two caused turnovers and three ground balls. The team-leader in ground balls was LSM John Reinhardt with five.
Eric Baumgardner won 9-of-16 faceoffs. Aurora's Matt Smidlein was 9-for-18. Chris Thomas played 56 minutes in goal for Denison and notched 10 saves. His eight first half saves bought the DU offense time, setting the stage for the second half run.
The win sets the stage for a rematch of the 2014 NCAA Quarterfinals pitting No. 6 Denison vs. No. 3 Salisbury at Sea Gull Stadium on Wednesday, May 18. The start time will be determined on Monday.
