The Denver Pioneers lost a second straight overtime game, falling to the No. 3/4 Cornell Big Red in overtime, 9-8. The game was played on neutral territory at Hofstra University, the site of Denver's 14-9 victory over the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays during the quarterfinals of the 2011 NCAA Lacrosse Tournament.
This was a hard-fought defensive struggle for the two teams. The first goal of the game didn't come until there was 8:33 left in the first quarter. Roy Lang had the Big Red in the lead until Cameron Flint scored his ninth goal of the season with two minutes left in the quarter. Cornell then jumped out to a 3-1 lead a little over five minutes into the second quarter. Mark Matthews, though, netted a goal with six minutes left in the half.
Matthews struck again to start the scoring in the second half and completed the hat trick to tie the game at four late in the third quarter. Tied at five at the start of the fourth quarter, Cornell put up two goals early on to Denver's one, but Chase Carraro and Jeremy Noble tied the game at seven and then put the Pioneers in the 8-7 lead with just 2:58 left in the game.
Then with six seconds left in the game, this is where the Pioneers could have used Jamie Faus in the net. However, the sophomore goaltender was injured in the 10-9 overtime loss to Notre Dame on Sunday. Steve Mock, with the help of Chris Langton, put one past Ryan LaPlante to tie the game with just six ticks of the clock left. Then, just 1:05 into the four-minute overtime period, Mock fed the ball to Langton for the game-winning goal.
Matthews led the Pioneers with three points, his 24th career hat trick.
Denver returns home to Colorado for a Saturday contest against the Air Force Falcons in an ECAC contest. The Pioneers will have three games at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium after that.
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