Junior attackman Austin French (Denville, N.J.) recorded the second hat trick of his career and junior close defenseman Dylan Gaines (Baltimore, Md.) caused two turnovers, picked up six ground balls and scored the first goal of his career to lead the [4/4] University of Denver men's lacrosse team past [17/RV] Air Force on Saturday afternoon in a winter wonderland at Falcon Stadium. "I'm really proud of the way we started the game," head coach Bill Tierney said. "It's the first win of the season on a very rough day to play. I thought in the second half we got a little complacent, but that's a credit to Air Force for the runs they were able to go on. Overall, it was just a crazy day. It's a matter of just taking this win, and now we move on to Duke on Friday night." French added two assists to lead the game with five points, while senior attackman Colton McCaffrey (Parker, Colo.) chipped in two goals and a helper. Junior goaltender Alex Ready (Lancaster, Pa.) pitched a first half shutout, making six saves in the first 30 minutes. Ready finished with nine saves in the contest. Gaines got Denver on the board 28 seconds into the game with the first goal of his career after faceoff specialist Trevor Baptiste (Denville, N.J.) won it backwards. In his first game back in the offensive midfield after spending most of the time at SSDM a year ago, sophomore Danny Logan (Upper Arlington, Ohio) got the Pioneers second 1:16 later. McCaffrey closed out the scoring in the first quarter with his first of two in the first half off a feed from French to put Denver up 3-0. McCaffrey got a feed from junior Drew Supinski (Collegeville, Pa.) in his first game in a Pioneer uniform after transferring from Johns Hopkins to make it 4-0 with 11:39 to go in the half. Denver closed out the touchdown lead at halftime with goals from senior captain Sean Mayle (San Carlos, Calif.), junior midfielder Colton Jackson (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) and freshman Riley Curtis (Brampton, Ontario). French added a pair of helpers in the first half to lead the Pioneers in that category in the opening 30 minutes. Air Force got its first two goals of the game in the first 2:08 of the second half. French answered the run with his first two goals of the game, assisted by McCaffrey and co-captain Connor Donahue (Groton, Mass.). Senior Jeremy Bosher (Kamloops, B.C.) completed a 3-0 Pioneers' run off a feed from sophomore Ethan Walker (Peterborough, Ontario) to extend Denver's lead back to eight at 10-2. The Falcons would answer with a 3-0 run of their own that extended into the fourth quarter. French scored the last goal of the contest to complete his hat trick, snapping a 17-minute scoring drought with a one-on-one move from behind the cage. Baptiste finished 9-of-18 in the game, the first game in his career that the three-time First Team All-American did not reach double-digit faceoff wins. The Pioneers committed just five turnovers and went a perfect 20-for-20 on the clear in the winter weather. Denver also finished 1-for-2 on the man-up in the opener, scoring a goal seconds after the release on their first-half man-up.