No. 7 Loyola's 7-6 victory over Towson this past Saturday was punctuated by the return of senior attackman Cooper MacDonnell from a right shoulder injury and the play of linemate Collin Finnerty.
Finnerty scored a game-high three goals, and MacDonnell scored twice, but fellow starter Matt Langan had a quiet afternoon, finishing with just one assist. It was not the kind of outing expected from the junior attackman, who was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Co-Offensive Player of the Week for scoring a career-high four goals and tying a personal-best six points in an 18-3 rout of Air Force.
"We challenged Matt Langan yesterday because he's deferring a little bit more to Collin and to Cooper," coach Charley Toomey said. "That's what we're going to challenge him to be when he was out there with [freshman Patrick] Fanshaw, when he knew he had to create opportunities and let Pat finish. We're going to get after Matt and say, 'Hey, we want the same guy we had the last two weeks because we know you can dodge and we know you can handle the ball.' What happens is with Cooper back in the mix, you probably have a few less touches because he commands the ball and so does Collin and so does Matt. Where Pat Fanshaw is more of a finisher and an off-ball guy, Matty had more opportunities. So we're still finding our rhythm offensively. We still have about five more weeks to figure it out."
Saturday brings an opponent unfamiliar to the Greyhounds. ECAC newcomer Ohio State (5-4) hasn't played against Loyola since 1998, but it's a pattern the team has become accustomed to. After all, the Greyhounds has already met league foes Bellarmine for the first time in school history, Air Force for the first time since 1997 and Quinnipiac for the first time since 2004.
"That's a challenge we've run into all year playing in this league," Toomey said. "Playing a Quinnipiac, playing a Bellarmine, playing an Air Force and now an Ohio State, you tend to watch as much film as you can because now you're trying to get a feel for how they play. So it's probably the same advantage and disadvantage that Coach [Nick] Myers is dealing with over there. We're going to go and do what we think is right and then be ready to make some changes within the game."