It was a feeling that many Denver players couldn’t describe. Some of them didn’t think that it was possible winning a national championship. But they did just that.
For the first time in NCAA Division I Lacrosse history, the Denver Pioneers claimed their first ever National Championship with a 10-5 victory over the Maryland Terrapins. The victory gave Head Coach Bill Tierney his seventh national championship, his previous six came as the coach of Princeton in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Denver got out of the gate very early, as in 40 seconds early with Wesley Berg’s first of five goals on the day and three in the first quarter. He scored the second goal with 10:42 to play before Colin Heacock cut the Pioneer lead to 2-1. Berg then scored his hat-trick goal with 5:04 left in the quarter. Berg eventually scored a man-up goal in the third and an empty net goal late in the game for the Pioneers.
Another big story coming in was the face-off showdown between Denver’s Trevor Baptiste and Maryland’s Charlie Raffa. After splitting the first quarter with Raffa, Baptiste went three-for-four on the draws in the second quarter and three-for-five in the third quarter. He finished winning 10-for-19 on the draws in a very even matchup, with three of those wins coming from Maryland violations.
Maryland’s defense came in as the best in the nation, giving up close to seven goals per game. But it was Denver’s defense, led by senior goaltender Ryan LaPlante, which stymied the Terrapin offense. LaPlante made 13 stops on the day, including five in the first quarter, while first team All-American Kyle Bernlohr stopped ten shots.
Although there were many positives for this weekend, including the importance of Denver winning the championship, the attendance for this weekend was 72,897 (Monday’s attendance was 24,215), a drop-off of nearly 6,000 fans from last year’s event in Baltimore. It continues a downward trend dating back to 2012, when attendance was 79,595 after 2011’s attendance of 98,786. Who knows what happens next year, when Final Four weekend comes to Philadelphia again, but another decline in attendance could mean changes for future venues.
