College lacrosse:

Denver Pioneers pound Notre Dame 16-4, return to men’s Final Four at 13-3.

hemp stead, n.y .» The university of denver men’s lacrosse team is accustomed to drama when it faces Notre Dame.

Any hint of that vanished Saturday around halftime of the fifth-seeded Pioneers’ quarterfinal game in the NCAA Tournament.

Trevor Baptiste won 21-of-22 faceoffs while collecting 13 groundballs and Austin French scored four goals in DU’S 16-4 rout of the fourth-seeded Fighting Irish before 10,117 fans at Shuart Stadium.

“We played the perfect game today,” said DU coach Bill Tierney.

The Pioneers (13-3) advanced to their fifth semifinal gamein the last seven years and will meet the winner of Sunday’s maryland-albany game next Saturday in Foxborough, Mass.

Denver posted its most lopsided postseason victory ever, and it was Notre Dame’s largest margin of defeat in any game since the 1997 NCAA Tournament.

Itwas an unexpected twist in a series full of close games. The last four DU-ND meetings were one-goal affairs, and five of the last seven between the powerhouse programs went to overtime.

“I’m still kind of shocked about it,” Tierney said of Saturday’s final score.

About the only thing that went wrong for DU was Baptiste losing the opening faceoff, something that would not happen the rest of the game. After the Irish (9-6) scored the first goal, the Pioneers rattled off the next 11 to turn the rest of the game into a formality.

Baptiste, a Tewaaraton Award finalist, bumped his faceoff success for the season to 75.7 percent, moved into fifth place on the NCAA’S career groundball list with 475 and scored his 12th goal of the season.

“I thought the wing play was amazing — (faceoffs are) not a one-man thing,” said Baptiste, a junior. “It’s a three-man every time, 10-man job sometimes, seven-manjob other times.”

DU spread its offense around, with Ethan Walker providing three goals and three assists, whiletyler Pace scored three goals. The Pioneers led 8-1 at halftime and eventually constructed a 16-2 advantagewhile enjoying a near-monopoly on possession time.

Put another way, the Pioneers scored 16 goals and Notre Dame took 16 shots.

“It just gives our team all the confidence in the world when Trevor’s winning (faceoffs) like that,” said French, a sophomore. “When the ball’s on our end of the field for those long time periods, I think it allows our offense to get on a roll and we can control the game.”

Mikeywynne scored three goals fornotre Dame, which closed its season on a 1-3 slide but was competitive in every game along the way until Saturday. The Irish hadn’t lost by at least 10 goals since 2002.

“I can’t remember a game in the last decade that we didn’t have a chance to win in the fourth quarter,” saidnotredame coachkevin Corrigan. “That was new territory for a lot of us out there.”

In the rare instances that DU was asked to defend, it was more than able. The Pioneers held attackman Ryder Garnsey to an assist and star midfielder Sergio Perkovic to a goal and an assist, and shut out Notre Dame for a stretch of more than 37 minutes.

“I felt likewewere dialed in,” Baptiste said. “I felt like the defense had a lot to prove. They kept getting the short end of the stick when people were talking about our team.”

Perhaps not anymore, though it’s safe to expect any conversation about the Pioneers to begin with Baptiste, who has won at least 20 faceoffs in six of Denver’s last nine games. And it will surely include a team performance Saturday that transformed a taut rivalry into a blowout.

DU didn’t leave much doubt in securing its return to the Final Four in men’s lacrosse.