Towson’s Second-Half Offensive Struggles Lead to Defeat Against Saint Joseph’s

By: Jonathan Totten, contributing writer 

Towson Men’s Lacrosse welcomed the Saint Joseph’s Hawks to Johnny Unitas Stadium on Saturday in a non-conference matchup. An 0-3 start to the season had the Tigers still finding their pulse and a win today would help them re-establish themselves. 

The Hawks would strike first, scoring within the first 52 seconds of the game. Towson started aggressively, taking eight shots in the first seven minutes with two of them being on goal. Midfielder Josh Webber would score his first goal of the season to knot the game at 1 a piece. 

The Hawks pulled off a hat-trick and scored three goals in a row within a minute of each other to give them a 4-1 advantage with two minutes left in the first quarter. 

“I don’t feel like anything’s really broken within what we’re doing”, said Head Coach Shawn Nadalen. “Being able to continue to drill in on our shooting and being much more disciplined in our defense on and off the ball, and being cleaner off the ground. Those little plays obviously matter so we gotta continue to put the effort in.”

Midfielder Alex Roussel hit a riser into the bottom to decrease the separation and make the score 4-2 to end the first. 

Josh Webber scored off a secured ground ball to make the score 4-3 with ten minutes to go in the second quarter. Towson was knocking on Saint Joseph’s door but they would ignore the wakeup call. The Hawks scored another goal to gain more breathing toward the end of the half. 

Attackman Alex Veini found the back of the net with 2:30 left in the half off a Josh Webber assist to score Towson’s fourth point. Saint Joseph’s led 5-4 heading into halftime. 

One thing that worked well in the first half for Towson was faceoff wins. Matt Constantinides was efficient on the midfield line, winning seven faceoffs and picking up five ground balls in the first half. 

Despite Towson leading in faceoffs and ground balls in addition to Saint Joseph’s giving up possession more times in the first half, playing from behind was a recurring theme in each quarter for the Tigers. The Hawks, continuing where they left off, would again score within the first 50 seconds of the second half. 

Towson had to make the contest a shootout in order to keep up with the Hawks, let alone come out victorious. The Veini-Webber connection would prove to be effective once again, with Veini scoring another goal off a Webber assist. Veini and Webber played a significant role in today’s game, ending the game with 2 goals a piece. Their involvement in this game was much needed amid the absence of two offensive juggernauts in Midfielder Mike Weisshaar and Attackman Ronan Fitzpatrick.

“We just had to move some pieces around,” said Nadalen, about the game plan without his two offensive starters. “It’s the next man up and we have a strong team full of capable guys.”

Attackman Chop Gallagher got involved, putting one past the keeper within 20 seconds of the last Towson goal and the contest was even again for the first time since the first quarter. 

On the contrary, Saint Joseph’s was playing at a high level Towson could not quite reach. The Hawks’ rapid ball movement caused the Tigers to be out of place and unable to beat them to their spots, putting three unanswered shots past the goalie within two minutes. The Tigers failed to score a goal the rest of the third quarter after Gallagher’s contribution. Much credit is due to Saint Joseph’s goalkeeper who had 17 saves of 23 shots on goal. His defensive prowess did not allow Towson to key in on the net, pressuring them to take uncomfortable shots. 

Towson called a timeout to regroup, seeking to rectify their shooting woes and fight fire with fire. But, with Saint Joseph’s up three with two minutes to go in the third, they stalled out the shot clock, leaving little time for Towson to be proactive on offense. 

Resembling the last twelve minutes of the third, the fourth quarter was much of the same as the Tigers went scoreless the entire fourth quarter. The Hawks’ defense suffocated Towson on offense and disrupted all efforts of finding a rhythm. The Hawks put two more in the net during the final three minutes to cap off their dominant display. 

Nadalen spoke on what it will take for Towson to develop a winning culture.

“You gotta chip away. We gotta build some momentum with practice by practice, drill by drill, rep by rep to make sure we build that confidence and skill set so we’re playing at a higher level.”

Saint Joseph’s won the contest 11-6 and Towson remains winless with an 0-4 start to the season. Towson is still on the hunt for their first win as they face UMBC next Friday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.