BALTIMORE — At the end of Denver’s walkthrough Friday at Homewood Field, the team split into East vs. West, a tradition born of perennially fielding one of the most geographically diverse rosters in NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse.
Usually, the West wins. But not Friday. And that chafed California native JJ Sillstrop.
“JJ just lit into the West team,” Pioneers head coach Matt Brown said. “It shows how much he cares about this group and how far he’s matured as a leader.”
Sillstrop backed up his words with actions Saturday, scoring three goals in the final three-and-a-half minutes of regulation and delivering the knockout punch in overtime to lift 11th-ranked Denver to a 13-12 comeback win over sixth-ranked Johns Hopkins.
“This group has a lot of belief,” Sillstrop said. “We trusted one another and we got lucky at the end.”
A fifth-year starting attackman, Sillstrop finished with a game-high six goals — none more exhilarating than the 18-yard stepdown with seven-tenths of a second remaining that sent the game to overtime after the Pioneers trailed by as many as four goals in the second half.
It looked like Johns Hopkins, whose offense stalled out after a sizzling start to the game, might escape with a win when Logan Callahan won a faceoff with 44 seconds left and the Blue Jays clinging to a one-goal lead. But defenseman Scott Smith could not corral an errant clearing pass by defenseman Beaudan Szuluk, managing only to keep the ball inbounds as Denver regained possession with its 10-man ride.
After a Pioneers timeout, Ty Hussey got a head of steam out of the midfield. Smith slid to the middle and leveled Hussey with an illegal body check to the head that resulted in a two-minute non-releasable penalty.
Just 2.6 seconds remained, however, and Denver had few options.
“You can’t really orchestrate much,” Brown said. “We put two guys on the inside. We saw that they covered up the inside quite well. They clammed everybody in there. JJ just stood at the top. We said if you can make one clean pass, get it off before the buzzer goes.”
Sillstrop did just that, catching a pass from midfielder Stephen Avery at the restraining line, stepping into the box and unleashing a shot that bounced past Blue Jays goalie Chayse Ierlan, who was screened on the play.
“I just put it on net and hoped he didn’t see it,” Sillstrop said.
Johns Hopkins remained man-down going into overtime. Callahan won another clutch faceoff and midfielder Brooks English got an open look on goal that just missed. Attackman Jacob Angelus turned the ball over at the end of the shot clock. Denver cleared the ball and called timeout.
In a sight that will still take some getting used to, new assistant David Metzbower commanded the offense as Brown paced between the huddles.
“It was different. I had to bite my tongue a few times” said Brown, the Pioneers’ long-time offensive coordinator who is in his first season as the head coach after Hall of Famer Bill Tierney retired. “But when you hire somebody that has seven national championships and he’s coached some of the best lacrosse players in the world, you trust him.”
Midfielder Jack Tortolani shot wide and the Johns Hopkins penalty was released, but not in time for the Blue Jays to catch up to the Pioneers’ swift rotation. Attackman Cody Malawsky caught the ball and slotted it to Sillstrop, who elevated a lefty riser past Ierlan for the game-winning goal.
“He’s the player I want to be,” said Malawsky, a sophomore who scored a diving goal off a swim dodge in his collegiate debut. “That’s what I want to be when my time here is over.”
