YORK, Pa. (April 8, 2023) – Playing in its first game since its first loss in North Coast Athletic Conference action last time out, the No. 16 Denison University men's lacrosse team took a break from conference play to battle No. 12-ranked York College of Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon. The Big Red got off to a good start and led 4-3 after the first quarter before the Spartans turned it on and outscored Denison 13-4 the rest of the way and rolled to a 16-8 victory. It was the same site where Denison fell 16-4 against York during the third round of the NCAA Tournament last year in Head Coach
Eric Koch's first season leading the Big Red.
Clyde Bresnahan scored the first goal of the match less than a minute in, and then the Big Red twice led by two goals in the first quarter as
Luke Fisher and
Colin Donegan scored to make it 3-1 less than five minutes in before a goal by
Gavin Pappas made it 4-2 with just under four minutes left in the opening period.
However, the Spartans scored in the final minute of the first quarter to get back to within one and then shutout the Big Red in a 6-0 second quarter to take control up 9-4.
York outshot Denison 21-3, won five of seven faceoffs, and grabbed nine of 13 groundballs in the second quarter.
Grant Larson won the faceoff and scored the first goal of the second half just five seconds in, and then Fisher helped Denison bookend the scoring in the third quarter, but four straight goals by York in between Larson and Fisher's tallies all but put the game out of reach.
Fisher finished with two goals and added one assist and four groundballs while
Tommy Quinson recorded six groundballs and two caused turnovers.
In goal,
Archer Darrach faced a season-high 55 shots and finished with 14 saves for the second game in a row.
With the loss, Denison fell to 7-3 overall while York improved to 6-5 to go along with a combined 2-5 record against nationally-ranked opponents. In addition, all five losses so far this season for the Spartans have been against teams currently ranked in the top-11 in NCAA Division III.
Next up, Denison will head back into NCAC action as the Big Red host Oberlin College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, followed by their annual rivalry game against Ohio Wesleyan University starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 15.
