Dartmouth Heads to Colorado for Denver Faceoff Classic

GAME 2
Saturday, Feb. 27: Dartmouth (0-1) vs. Air Force (1-2)
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Denver, Colo. – Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium
All-Time Series: Air Force leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: March 18, 2006 – Air Force won, 13-8
Live Stats
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GAME 3
Sunday, Feb. 28: Dartmouth at No. 1/2 Denver (2-0)
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Denver, Colo. – Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium
All-Time Series: Dartmouth leads, 3-0
Last Meeting: April 1, 2001 – Dartmouth won, 7-6
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THIS WEEKEND
The Dartmouth men's lacrosse team will head out to Colorado this weekend for the Faceoff Classic. The four-team event features Dartmouth, Air Force, Sacred Heart and host Denver. The Big Green will take on Air Force on Saturday and Denver on Sunday.

LAST TIME OUT
After mounting a comeback in the second and third quarters following a scoreless first, the Big Green ultimately fell to Sacred Heart, 10-8, in the season-opener on Saturday. Cameron Lee scored Dartmouth's first goal of the year and was one of three Green players to end the day with three points. It took exactly eight minutes for either team to get on the board in the first quarter – thanks to aggressive, back-and-forth action and good defense – but it was Sacred Heart that broke the stalemate with a Bryce Jurk goal. With 4:55 remaining, Joe Saggese found the back of the net to increase the Pioneers' lead to two. Sacred Heart would make it 3-0 five minutes into the second, but Dartmouth soon turned things around to take the lead. With 9:15 left on the clock and just 44 seconds after the Pioneer goal, Lee scored the Green's first marker of the season. Tallies by Randell and sophomore Evan Key a minute and a half apart tied the score at three-all, which would be how the score would remain for the last six minutes of action. Dartmouth kept the momentum going into the third and, before long, was sporting a 6-3 lead thanks to goals by KC Beard, Harrison McCarthy and Cody George, with Beard's being the only man-up marker of the game for either team. After keeping Sacred Heart scoreless for over 20 minutes, the Pioneers got two in quick succession to lessen the Green's lead (6-5). The fourth quarter was where things got interesting. Sacred Heart outscored Dartmouth, 5-2, tying the score twice before taking a two-goal lead with 4:30 left on the clock, an edge the Pioneers would manage to hold on to until the end of the game.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS
Air Force is already three games into its season and enters Saturday's game with a record of 1-2. The Falcons opened the season in early February with back-to-back loses to Navy (10-6) and Denver (10-9) before defeating Marist in a dramatic 7-6 quadruple-overtime victory last weekend to pick up their first win of the season. Chris Walsch leads the team in goals (7), assists (4) and points (11).

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST AIR FORCE
Saturday's game will be just the third all-time meeting between the two teams, and it has almost been a decade since the last one. On March 15, 1997, the Big Green fell to the Falcons, 18-9, and almost 10 years later on March 18, 2006, Air Force took down Dartmouth, 13-8.

SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
Denver is off to a good start in 2016: it defeated No. 6/8 Johns Hopkins (14-10) in an exhibition game at the end of January before taking down Air Force (10-9) and No. 3/3 Duke (14-12). The Pioneers themselves are nationally ranked, coming in at No. 2 on the Cascade/Maverick Media Top 20 list, while sitting atop the USILA poll. They will face Sacred Heart on Saturday before taking on the Green the next day. Tyler Pace leads the team with seven points (3G, 4A).

ALL-TIME SERIES AGAINST DENVER
Dartmouth has won all three of its games against Denver. The two teams first met on March 28, 1992, and the Big Green defeated the Pioneers, 19-6. Eight years later on April 2, 2000, Dartmouth won, 10-8, and on April 1, 2001, the last time the teams played each other, the Green walked away with a 7-6 victory.

BETWEEN THE PIPES
In the loss to Sacred Heart, Blair Friedensohn made a number of key saves to keep Dartmouth in the game. He ended the day with 13 stops, has a .565 save percentage and 10.00 goals against average. Hoping to see some time in net during their first collegiate seasons are Joe Balaban and Griffin Miller.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Dartmouth will open its five-game home slate on Saturday, March 5 when it hosts Wagner in a non-conference game scheduled for 1 p.m. at Scully-Fahey Field.

Schedules