Towson Shuts out Hofstra, Clinches Outright CAA Regular Season Title

By: D’Mari Dreher-Smith, Sports Editor and Kylie Jones, Deputy Sports Editor

In their final matchup of the season, the Towson Tigers returned home to take on the Hofstra Pride with their sights set on an undefeated CAA finish. After a dominant performance, including two players scoring five-goals each, the Tigers managed a 20-3 victory over the Pride. 

Towson’s Joaquin Villagomez kicked off the first quarter with a three-goal scoring-spree to give the Tigers the early advantage. This was Villagomez’ seventh hat-trick of the season. 

“You could just feel like an edge to Joaquin today with his shooting warm ups a little bit,” said head coach Shawn Nadelen. “And he got hot early and stayed hot, that took a lot of focus out of the other guys.”

The momentum carried to the Tigers defense who prevented the Pride from scoring until the final three minutes of the first quarter. 

Towson’s Ryan Schrier responded to Hofstra’s goal with one of his own, assisted by Alex Vieni, to close out first quarter scoring.

Hofstra managed the first goal of the second quarter, but Towson regained control with an explosive second quarter run. 

The run kicked off with Towson’s Mikey Weisshaar finding the back of the net, assisted by Villagomez around the twelve-minute mark. After a brief Tiger timeout, Owen Scott assisted freshman Trevor Phipps on a goal of his own.

Weisshaar notched a second goal from a Ryan Schrier assist, and Ronan Fitzpatrick buried one in for the Tigers to mark four goals in just over two minutes.

The dominance continued with other Tigers getting a piece of the action. 

Now 8-2, senior Evan Boswell found open space and scored for Towson, assisted by Burnam. Weisshaar earned his hat-trick with a goal with four minutes to go in the half. 

A Hofstra unnecessary roughness penalty would give Villagomez a man-up goal, followed by another Villagomez goal off the post less than 30 seconds later.

The Tigers ended the half with a final goal by Boswell, assisted by Villagomez with 1:05 left in the quarter, 13-2.

The second half started with a Hofstra goalie change, still trying to find their way through a near perfect Towson performance.

The teams would trade turnovers for a few minutes until Matt Burnam would find the back of the net for the Tigers. An extra-man opportunity would give Weisshaar a man-up goal, assisted by Villagomez with 7:57 left in the third quarter.

The Pride would benefit from a faceoff violation from the Tigers, briefly halting the Tigers 11-0 run, scoring for the last time in the game with 7:25 left. 

After a series of missed high and wide shots from Towson and Hofstra, Fitzpatrick would find his space for a final unassisted goal to end the quarter, 16-3.

And in the fourth quarter, history took shape. With his fifth goal of the game, Weisshaar became the programs all-time leader in points scored, only days after being drafted number two by the Premier Lacrosse league. 

“I just go out every game and play my hardest. I didn’t really know what would happen,” said Weisshaar. “Just play within the system, and I was fortunate enough to break it today. So that means a lot to me.”

The Tigers would pick up four goals in the fourth quarter, effectively ending their season, earning the outright CAA regular season title, 20-3.

The Tigers will return to Johnny Unitas stadium on Thursday, April. 30 at 4 p.m. to take on the Monmouth Hawks in the CAA Tournament semifinal game.