The Colonial Athletic Association Tournament final on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. pits two teams in top-seeded Towson (7-7) and No. 2 seed Delaware (9-6) that haven't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2007. The winner at Johnny Unitas Stadium will go on, while the loser will go home.
1. One key to a Delaware win: The Blue Hens are averaging 11.4 goals per game this season – good enough to rank 13th among Division I offenses – and fired 15 goals against a Drexel team that had ranked fourth in the country in defense (7.9 goals per game). Senior attackman Curtis Dickson leads the nation with 57 goals, and he gets a lot of help from senior midfielder Martin Cahill (30 goals). Towson coach Tony Seaman said his defense will have to adopt a strategy that differs from the one the unit used so effectively in Wednesday night's 13-6 rout of No. 17 Massachusetts. "UMass is an off-the-ball, cutting, we'll-work-for-this-shot team – maybe one of the best I've ever played against," he said. "But they don't have people who can just go out and beat you one-on-one. Delaware presents the complete opposite problem. They can beat anybody one-on-one. So that creates all different kinds of problems for you."
2. One key to a Towson win: The Tigers have rallied back from a 1-5 start and early deficits in games. Their offense is at their best when many players are making contributions. The Tigers have had seven different players lead the unit in scoring, and 15 players have scored at least once. As the offense did against the Minutemen, Towson must take advantage of the Blue Hens' short-stick defensive midfielders, especially if Delaware elects to double-pole midfielders Christian Pastirik and Will Harrington.
3. One key match-up: As potent as the Blue Hens are on offense, they sometimes tend to get bogged down in one-on-one match-ups, relying on their dodging and speed to create scoring opportunities. Senior defensemen Joe Wascavage and Cameron Zook and sophomore defenseman Marc Ingerman were critical in surrendering just six goals to Massachusetts, and junior short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Mezzanotte is unheralded at his position. How that unit fares against Delaware's offense could play a significant role in the outcome.