'Noke Next: Denison Dispatches Ohio Wesleyan
from press reports
GRANVILLE, Ohio - Another fast start for the
Denison offense combined with some stout play on defense resulted
in a convincing 12-2 victory over Ohio Wesleyan University on
Wednesday in the opening round of the 2009 NCAA Division III Men's
Lacrosse Championship Tournament.
Not unlike their blazing start on April 5 that saw the Big Red
take a 10-1 lead after one quarter of play, DU came out of the
gates strong late in the opening quarter with three goals in a span
of just two minutes to take a 6-1 advantage into the second
period.
The first three goals of the game came off the crosse of junior
attack Brady Burton (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) who has pounded the
Bishops with nine goals in two games this year. Burton scored
the first two goals of the game off assists from Tanner Smith
(Boxford, Mass./Brooks School) with the third coming via an Emmett
Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy) feed in a man-up
situation.
Later in the quarter, two of Denison's up-and-comers, freshmen
Matt Verklin (Annapolis, Md./Severn School) and Alex Hardt (Dallas,
Texas/Episcopal) scored back-to-back goals to five DU a 5-0 lead
with 1:07 to play in the first.
After a face-off win by Connor Detjen (Winnetka, Ill./Loyola),
Burton found Jones for his 35th goal of the year. Now leading
6-0 with just 45 seconds left it was nearly a perfect quarter for
the Big Red until OWU's Rick Scheetz took the ensuing face-off and
raced down the field to score 1 on 1 against Denison goalie Gregg
Shannon (Lindenhurst, N.Y./St. Anthony's).
The scoring would taper in the second quarter as Bishop attack
Karl Zimmerman's assisted goal with 1:36 before halftime would be
the lone goal. DU struggled in extra-man in the quarter,
going 0 for 4, but Shannon turned in three saves in the period to
keep the lead at 6-2 heading into the third quarter.
In the second half the DU defense, led by seniors Jim Minor
(Washington, Pa./Trinity), Matt Edenbaum (Bethesda, Md./St.
Andrews), Ted Gulyas (Medina, Ohio/Medina), did most of the
talking. Freshmen John Payne (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./U of D
Jesuit) and Shannon also heeded the challenge.
Edenbaum, Gulyas and Payne combined for 19 ground balls with
Gulyas pacing the squad with eight. Shannon would finish the
game with 11 saves running his season saver percentage to
.595. He also lowered his goals against average to 6.12.
Burton would lead Denison with five goals and two assists off just
nine shots. Hardt finished with three goals and Smith added
three assists. Denison outshot Ohio Wesleyan 38-21 but were
edged in face-off's 9-7. OWU committed 14 penalties for 12
minutes and DU converted four of those extra-man opportunities.
Ohio Wesleyan entered the game as the nation's seventh-ranked
scoring offense at almost 15 goals per game. Their two-goal
output against Denison was their second fewest amount of goals
scored against the Big Red. The low came in a 10-1 loss in
1971. Today's game was the 85th meeting between the two
rivals and with the win, Denison has pulled even in the all-time
series at 42-42-1.
With the win Denison advances to the NCAA's second round which
will be played in Salem, Va. against No. 3 Roanoke on Saturday (May
9) at 1 p.m. This will be the first time Denison has faced
the Maroons since 1995.
