Wednesday night's contest features two teams moving in opposing directions. No. 19 Towson (6-5) has won five straight games and is the top seed in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. Johns Hopkins (5-7) has dropped six of its last seven contests and must win its final two games of the regular season to even warrant consideration for the NCAA Tournament. Homewood Field should be the site of some fireworks.
One key to a Towson win: The Tigers have won their last three contests by a total of three goals, which is a testament to the defense. During the team's 1-5 start, opponents averaged 11.7 goals per game and four teams scored at least 10 goals. During the winning streak, the goals-per-game average has dipped to 7.8, and no opposing offense has reached 10 goals. Even with the season-ending knee injury to freshman Ben Strauss, sophomore Marc Ingerman and seniors Joe Wascavage and Cameron Zook have produced, and junior defensive midfielder Peter Mezzanotte leads the team with 21 caused turnovers. "We're a team defense," coach Tony Seaman said. "That's what we base everything on. We don't have the stars or the first-team All Americans that everyone's talking about or even the second-team All Americans. We've just got a bunch of guys that play really well together as a team, and we hope to God our goalie is up to making some saves against some difficult shots."
One key to a Johns Hopkins win: A program traditionally praised for its strong defense has been a little leaky this season. Opponents are averaging 9.5 goals against the Blue Jays. While that is better than last year's unit that surrendered 10.3 goals per game, it's still the second-worst average allowed by the defense under coach Dave Pietramala. Towson is averaging 9.2 goals, but boasts seven players with at least 10 points each. "The sum of the whole for them is greater than the parts, and I think that's a credit to their coaching staff getting those kids to play well together," Pietramala said of the Tigers. "And that doesn't mean that they're not talented individually. They are. Not having big-name guys, I've learned that doesn't matter. Names don't matter. It's performance, and thus far, they've proven that they can perform."
One key match-up: As mentioned above, Mezzanotte has been Towson's defensive playmaker, causing 21 turnovers and collecting 35 groundballs, which is the second-highest total on the team behind freshman face-off specialist Matt Thomas' 40 groundballs. Mezzanotte just might get a shot at marking Johns Hopkins senior midfielder Michael Kimmel (18 goals and 14 assists). Kimmel has compiled three goals and four assists in the last two meetings with the Tigers, which is why Seaman half-joked that his entire bench would slide to Kimmel. "He's the kind of guy who can dominate a game," Seaman said. "He's to them what [Paul] Rabil was to them and what [Kyle] Harrison was to them. I'm not saying he's as good as those two guys, but he certainly is to them what those guys were to them."