The relief etched on the faces of Towson players told the whole story.
Tuesday night's 10-9 victory over No. 17 Navy at Johnny Unitas Stadium helped the Tigers avoid the program's first 0-4 start – and stoked a competitive fire that has shown no signs of flaming out.
Moments after the win, junior goalkeeper Travis Love was licking his chops over Sunday's tilt with No. 1 Virginia.
"It's scary," Love said of the showdown with the undefeated Cavaliers, "but on any day, I feel like anything can happen. CP [senior Christian Pastirik, who scored three goals including the game-winner with 6 seconds left against the Midshipmen] was huge for us. It just takes that one guy and everyone else can ride their coattails. Our team has guys that can step up like that. I'm looking forward to Virginia. I want them. I want that second win."
Love might be getting a little ahead of himself, but the point is that Towson is not out of the playoff picture just yet. Yes, there are some challenging match-ups with Virginia and No. 11 Loyola in the next two weeks, but the Tigers can still makes waves in the Colonial Athletic Association.
"It's a win – any way we can," coach Tony Seaman said. "We hung in there. … Our big theme was let's play 60 minutes. We had been playing 50, 48, 49, and tonight, we finished it up with six seconds left. So thank God. We did everything we could to give me a heart attack tonight. … It was unbelievable."
Other notes:
*Towson's win is the school's first against an intra-state rival since edging Loyola, 9-8, in the 2007 season opener. That's a span of 12 straight losses to opponents like Maryland (four losses), Johns Hopkins and UMBC (three each) and Loyola (twice).
*Love played well in his first career start, registering 14 saves. Love was his own harshest critic, chastising himself for allowing a few low shots to sneak by him. "I've got to stay bigger," he said. "That's something I can work on. But really, I was just a little kid in a candy shop. Just excited to get my first start and get the team the first win."
*After converting just 8-of-16 clears in Saturday's 12-8 loss to then-No. 6 Maryland, Towson went 14-of-15 on clears Tuesday night. "We've been working on that all week, needless to say," Seaman said. "It's a hell of a lot easier to clear when there's not seven or eight inches of mud and water coming up over your boots like there was Saturday down at Maryland and you're not playing against 14 6-foot-7 guys with 72-inch sticks in their hands. So it's a little bit easier. But I thought we did a really good job of clearing the ball tonight."
*One troubling trend is the Tigers' inability to take advantage of extra-man opportunities. After going 1-of-5 Tuesday night, the man-up unit has converted just 1-of-13 chances in the last two games. But Seaman didn't sound concerned. "I thought we had some good shots, and that's when their goalie made some really good saves tonight," he said. "At least we got shots. We didn't get shots against Maryland. We'll keep working on that and hopefully, it gets better."
*Junior attackman Tim Stratton had one of the more entertaining goals of the season with 9:58 left in the second quarter. Stratton and senior midfielder Brock Armour engaged in a ball fake behind the net. As Midshipmen sophomore goalkeeper R.J. Wickham followed Armour to the left wing, Stratton – who had the ball – curled around the right post and dumped the ball into the open net. "Maybe we can do that hidden-ball trick more often," Seaman joked.
*Although Navy surrendered double-digit goals for the second straight contest, coach Richie Meade thought the defense had tightened things up from Friday's 15-8 setback to Patriot League foe Lafayette. "I thought we played better defense tonight," he said. "This is one of the best teams that we've played, to tell you the truth. I feel like if we had played this way last Friday, we probably would have had a different result. I thought Towson played well."