It isn’t easy to have a defending NCAA champion’s swagger while on the move, carrying lacrosse sticks, but the Denver Pioneers are continuing to pull it off.
Junior attackman Connor Cannizzaro had four goals and an assist as the Pioneers opened their postseason with a 17-8 trouncing of Providence in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament on Thursday night in front of a sellout crowd of 2,466 at DU’s Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
The Pioneers, who have a 22-game winning streak at home, will meet second-seeded Marquette in the 2:30 p.m. championship game Saturday. The Golden Eagles beat Villanova 14-9 in the first semifinal.
After the fourth-seeded Friars pulled into a 4-4 tie on Nolan Fillet’s goal with 9:33 left in the second quarter, the Pioneers ran off eight consecutive goals — the first three by junior midfielder Zach Miller for a natural hat trick in a span of 1:56 — to take a 12-4 lead by midway through the third period.
“Providence gave us all we would handle,” said DU coach Bill Tierney. “They were quick and strong and just played a great, clean, hard lacrosse game. We feel good abut moving on to the next game. … Those last five minutes or so of the second quarter kind of put our game together.”
Said Cannizzaro: “We knew they were going to come out and play us tough. They came back last game (in Providence), so we were ready for it and we just knew we had to keep going and getting good possessions.”
Miller finished with three goals and three assists, midfielder Tyler Pace also had three goals, and attackman Jack Bobzien had a goal and five assists for the Pioneers as Tierney rested his stars for much of the second half.
Also, sophomore midfielder Trevor Baptiste won 21-of-26 faceoffs, enabling the Pioneers to dominate possession time and DU had a 48-28 shots advantage.
“We knew they were going to come out hard,” Baptiste said. “They came out hard the first time and we had to keep playing through it.”
Will Mazzone had three goals for Providence, which finished the season 7-9.
DU (13-1) is a lock for an NCAA Tournament berth and a May 14 or 15 first-round home game when the field is announced Sunday night, but a loss to Marquette might affect the Pioneers’ seeding. DU has won 21 in a row against Big East opponents, in the regular season and tournament. The Thursday night sellout was the 11th in succession for the program and the 30th since the stadium opened in 2005.
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
