BUILD UP
Denver, the Lacrosse Capital of the West, is going nuts this week. As are we media personnel due to the movement in the last week. As Bill Tierney once told me in an interview, “The entire west region kind of looks to DU as their ‘home’ team.”
Families are taking off weekend work, players asking for early birthday presents as tickets, and coaches preaching for their teams to go watch. The lacrosse community is more pumped for this than they were the Mammoth making the playoffs. That’s a tight race, but one I think NCAA wins. Youth leagues are postponing playoffs a week or two and pushing ticket sales to the NCAA Quarterfinals. Other leagues are scheduling their playoff games around the NCAA event.
Not to mention, every 2015 quarterfinal game is a rematch of some case making for exciting, revenge-fueled games.
Now, with all the commotion about Ohio State upsetting Duke and Denver getting a rematch, the true questions that arise here (and I’ve been trying to sort out) are:
Did Denver have a poor showing last time or is Ohio State for real?
How much will home field advantage play in to this contest?
The Pioneers will naturally attract a huge following as the Mammoth didn’t make it, DU Hockey didn’t make it, and the fact that four quality programs will be in Denver the same weekend.
THE CONTENDERS
The Denver Pioneers have been a more complete team than most the past few seasons, but more so this season than I’ve noticed out of those few seasons. They know how to work a team offense against defense, when to individually take the ball, and about staying disciplined against tougher teams.
LaPlante has a screen across the front of the cage. An invisible one, because he’s been a brick wall the majority of this season. He’s saved 140 shots, has a lovely percentage of .528 and is surrounded by a defense with a reputation of excellence. They’re clearing average on the season is .863 and have caused 80 turnovers.
What’s scary about DU is their offense. With a team like Notre Dame, you know their claim to fame in 2015 is the attack unit. However, DU has both great attack and midfield players. Unlike playing against the Irish and focusing on shutting down attackmen, someone playing the Pioneers must be ready for pressure from anywhere.
Just like Notre Dame, Denver’s three scoring leaders this season are attack. Connor Cannizzaro (Sophomore) leads the team with 84 points – not including last week’s Brown game – followed by Wes Berg with 63 points. Zach Miller is third with 51 points.
However, Tyler Pace and Erik Adamson are next in line scoring stats, and they’re at midfield. Trevor Baptiste, FOGO for the Pioneers, has had a record breaking freshman year and is able to create offensive momentum whenever DU needs it.
There’s more to this team than its players. Every article previewing games, I’ve catered to statistics and performance of the athletes on the field. However, now that quarterfinals are at stake, it’s also time to bring to light some of the biggest momentum shifters of this Denver squad: coaches and fans.
Bill Tierney is a fantastic organizer of coaching personnel. He has the right guys for the right squad this year. Looking at Denver this year makes me think of Duke the past two years: the players get it done on the field, the coaches are there to support and motivate.
Whenever Denver is struggling, Tierney either calls a timeout or goes into halftime. And when the team comes out of those meetings, they’re a brand new face again. Whatever magic Tierney has in his words and wisdom, it influences these young men more than any team I’ve ever witnessed.
THE VENU
This is considered a home game, with advantage for Denver. I won’t reiterate the point of fanbase and geographies, so the question that lies here in the midst of a rematch is how much can home field advantage truly impact a team?
In the NFL, regular season home teams win 57% of the time. When they go into postseason, those odds increase 16%. If applied to lacrosse, I’d say the odds are even more so in the home team’s favor. Not as many lacrosse fans are willing to travel the country for games as some of the more intense NFL followers can do.
Altitude adjustments are a real thing in sports science. After moving here, I personally adjusted on three different levels: walking/living, jogging, and then lacrosse-game-speed. It takes a while to adjust. Albany, Notre Dame and Ohio State will have similar adjustments to compensate for, and I always enjoy arguing that the altitude does help the Pioneers.
THE VISITORS
Ohio State has been an exciting team this season, but an inconsistent one. The fact that they beat Duke to begin with is truly a lacrosse miracle as Duke outperformed them in every aspect of the game.
Thinking of Ohio State’s playing style reminds me of when Denver hosted Providence. Did anyone else notice Providence’s style was more individual? If you can take your defender, do it. No true system. That’s what I see in the Buckeyes also. A more individualistic playing style.
Providence almost took that game against DU if it weren’t for Tierney’s halftime speech to the team. Hopefully, this quarterfinal won’t be a similar pace.
In their upset of Duke, the majority of Buckeye goals were unassisted. Jesse King has been the spotlight holder on offense this season. He leads the Ohio State squad with 68 points and has both the most goals and assists on the team.
Right behind him is Carter Brown with 52 points and David Planning with 40 points. Tom Carey protects the cage with a season-long save percentage of .529.
THE REMATCH
If Denver hopes to continue their run for a championship and also avenge their loss to Ohio earlier this season, it will come down to two main focuses for the game.
First, the most exciting, face offs. Trevor Baptiste has been a freshman phenomenon with a .705 face off win percentage. The Buckeye taking the most FOGOs is Christopher May with a win percentage of .604. The battle at face-off will make or break the game for either team.
Denver’s ability to play both systematic and individual defense against the Buckeyes.
Last time was in Ohio; this time is in the Lacrosse Capital of the West. This will be a game of two younger programs, one western, one eastern, battling for a Final Four spot.
Game time is 3:30pmMT at Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO.
