After a shaky and scoreless first quarter, the University of Denver produced eight consecutive goals in an otherwise surgical-like performance against Ohio State on Thursday night at Peter Barton Stadium.
The fifth-ranked Pioneers (12-2), who are hosting the inaugural four-team Eastern College Athletic Conference Tournament, pounded the Buckeyes 11-4 for their ninth straight win.
Eight different players scored after OSU (8-8) took a 1-0 lead into the second quarter.
DU will play third-seeded Fairfield (Conn.) in Saturday’s championship game. The Stags upset No. 2 Loyola (Md.) 10-9 in Thursday’s afternoon semifinal.
The Pioneers, who are 14-0 all time in ECAC play, pounded Fairfield 11-5 in last Saturday’s regular-season finale. The title game will have an NCAA Tournament attached to it, but DU is in excellent shape to at least garner an at-large bid when the 16-team national field is announced Sunday.
In the opening 15 minutes against Ohio State, which bowed to the Pioneers 11-6 on April 16, DU was held scoreless in a quarter for just the fifth time this season. But coach Bill Tierney’s speech during the break must have been a beauty, because the Pioneers were a different team in the second quarter.
“You get frustrated sometimes,” Tierney said. “It’s good for the guys to find that all the things they’ve been doing all year still work. It just took a little while longer to get going.”
DU scored at 3:30 (Cameron Flint), 6:08 (Mark Matthews), 7:05 (Hayden Schuette) and 7:57 (Todd Baxter) to take a 4-1 lead into halftime, then got goals from Chase Carraro and Eric Law in the first minute of the second half to blow it open.
Alex Demopoulos and Schuette added third-quarter goals before Ohio State finally ended DU’s super stretch.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
