Tigers drop home game
By: Tyler Beard, Assistant Sports Writer
No. 7 Towson suffered its first home loss of the season as the team fell to the Delaware Blue Hens 10-7 Saturday.
“[The Blue Hens] came out ready to play and that was evident,” Head Coach Shawn Nadelen said “They came out with a quick face-off goal, which started off awful play from us and it continued for the next 59 minutes. Awful game by us and that starts with me and we’ll take care of that moving forward.”
It was also Towson’s (10-2, 2-1 CAA) first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) loss of the season, as the offense had 38 shots but only 18 shots were on-goal.
“I just think today we didn’t burry our shots,” junior attackman Ryan Drenner, who finished with two goals, said. “We didn’t have a lot of focus on the offensive end. I know, personally, I had a lot of turnovers that they ended up capitalizing on and really took the air out of us. All in all, we just have to finish our shots better and pay more attention to the game.”
Delaware (5-8, 2-1 CAA) won the opening face-off and scored in the first six seconds of the game. The team took advantage of the momentum and two more goals from attackman Paul Major extended the team’s lead to 3-0 within the first three minutes of the game.
The Tigers responded a minute later with a man-up goal from redshirt freshman attackman Ian Kirby, but the teams continued to trade goals into the second quarter.
Towson trailed 6-2 in the second quarter, until goals from freshman attackman Jon Mazza and junior midfielder Mike Lynch cut the lead to 6-4 before the half.
However, Towson’s offense struggled in the second half and Delaware scored the first three goals, which gave the team a 9-4 lead in the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Drenner scored two straight goals after the Blue Hens’ run in a late comeback attempt, but a goal from midfielder Steve DeLargy in the last six minutes of the game shut the door on the Tigers.
The loss dropped Towson into a three-way tie for second place in the CAA standings with two games remaining in the regular season.
“We just have to understand that if we want, we can have a lot of lacrosse ahead of us,” Nadelen said. “The biggest focus is getting back to work on Monday, getting a good practice underneath us, being able to bring that competitive fire and focus and execution every day and to be able to do so on Saturday because Fairfield will come in ready to go.”
Towson’s final home game is a matchup against the Fairfield Stags (7-6, 3-0 CAA) Saturday for Senior Day at noon.
Following the Tigers senior day game against the Stags at Johnny Unitas Stadium, the team will conclude its season at James M. Shuart Stadium in Hofstra, New York, against CAA rival Hofstra on Saturday, April 30. The Pride currently hold an 8-2 record including a win against Ohio State.