Losing streak: Towson football drops six straight games
By: Jordan Cope, Sports Editor
The nightmare season continued for Towson Saturday, after the team dropped its sixth straight game, this time at the hands of Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) arch rival Delaware 20-6.
“Congratulations to Delaware,” Head Coach Rob Ambrose said. “We didn’t do what it took to win.”
In the first quarter, both offenses struggled to move the football. Neither the Tigers (1-7, 0-5 CAA) nor the Blue Hens (3-5, 1-4 CAA) offense put points on the board as both teams went into the second quarter tied 0-0.
Midway through the second quarter, the Tigers struck first and took a 3-0 lead on a 27-yard field goal from freshman kicker Aidan O’Neill.
The field goal was set up by a 47-yard pass from redshirt sophomore quarterback Ellis Knudson to senior wide receiver Christian Summers and an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Blue Hens defense.
After Towson’s scoring drive, Delaware responded and took a 7-3 lead on a 21-yard double pass from junior wide receiver Diante Cherry to graduate running back Jalen Randolph.
Following the Blue Hens touchdown, things only got worse for the Tigers. On the ensuing Tigers drive, Knudson fumbled the football and was benched for the remainder of the game.
“We said if [Knudson] is going to do it again we are going to pull him,” Ambrose said. “He turned the ball over twice and that was the limited it was going to be, so come hell or high water, if that happened we were going to pull him so we did.”
Redshirt senior quarterback Heath Dahlgren took over for Knudson and threw an interception on his first drive of the game. Dahlgren finished the game completing just six of 18 passes for 51 yards and threw three interceptions.
“Both those kids played really hard,” Ambrose said. “Both those kids love their team. Both of those kids made mistakes. But I can see why we are where we are.”
The Blue Hens took advantage of Dahlgren’s first interception of the game and put three points on the board to take a 10-3 lead into halftime.
In the second half, Towson drove to the Delaware two yard line but could not get into the end zone and had to settle for a field goal.
The second field goal of the afternoon proved to be Towson’s last score of the game. The team has now gone nine quarters without having scored an offensive touchdown.
The Blue Hens added a field goal and a touchdown in the second half to secure the 20-6 victory over the Tigers.
Towson will look to snap a six-game losing skid and earn its first CAA win of the season Saturday at Johnny Unitas Stadium against Elon. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
“We have three games left,”redshirt junior outside linebacker Bryton Barr said. “There is more football to play. We’ve got to be thankful for that. We have three more football games, and we are going to play our hearts out these next three games.”
