Fighting past Fairfield

By: Tyler Beard, Staff Writer

Seven different players scored for No. 16 Towson to help it past No. 20 Fairfield, 8-7, on Saturday and to keep its undefeated Colonial Athletic Association record intact.

The Tigers (9-3, 3-0 CAA) have one of the top defenses in the nation but struggled in the first quarter, giving up four goals.

“The defense played uncharacteristically in the first quarter and I wasn’t overly impressed,” Head Coach Shawn Nadelen said. “It was a concern, but we’ll work on it in practice.”

The offense kept pace with Fairfield (7-5, 2-1 CAA) though, scoring four goals in the first quarter from redshirt senior attackman Max Siskind, sophomore attackmen Joe Seider and Ryan Drenner and sophomore midfielder Mike Lynch.

Junior defenseman Mike Lowe said Towson’s defense got together after the first quarter to talk about its slow start.

“We spoke after the first quarter and Tyler [White] gave us a talk and said we were playing outside of ourselves,” Lowe said. “After that, I think we played better by hustling more and going after every ground ball that we could.”

The Tigers took a 5-4 lead with Siskind’s second goal of the game in the beginning of the second quarter. It was the only goal scored for the rest of the half.

Both teams kept even in the first half, each with 16 shots and 6 saves.

The defenses took over in the third quarter until Fairfield tied the game at 5-5 with less than six minutes left.

However, Towson responded with a goal from senior midfielder Justin Mabus with four seconds left in the quarter.

The Tigers scored two straight goals in the second quarter and took an 8-5 lead with 11 minutes left in the game. The Stags managed to score two more goals but couldn’t tie the game at the end.

“They’re a strong defensive team and we knew it was going to be tough to have one of our guys string together multiple goals and let loose,” Nadelen said. “I think we were very efficient in our shooting and that helped us get the win.”

Redshirt junior goalie Tyler White finished the game with 12 saves. He leads the CAA with a .605 save percentage and 10.08 saves per game.

Towson still remains undefeated in the CAA and has the ability to be the top seed in the CAA tournament, meaning it would be the host.

“It would be a great thing for us to do,” Nadelen said. “The guys are excited but we’re also focused on two tough teams coming up and we’re shifting our focus onto Hofstra.”

Lowe spoke about the team’s CAA success as well and said that it’s nice for the team to be undefeated but they want to take it one game at a time.

Towson’s next game is their final home game against the Hofstra Pride (4-8, 1-2 CAA) on Saturday at noon.

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