Sixth-ranked Severna Park taught No. 8 Towson a valuable lesson yesterday in the final of the Towson Women's Lacrosse Invitational.

You can't score without the ball.

The experienced Falcons used their swarming defense to force turnovers time and again in the first half, building an eight-goal lead before staving off a late Generals rally in a 13-8 win.

"We just tried to stay on our men," said Falcons senior Jess Gaither, who led her team with three goals and three assists. "Our defense did a really good job today. They picked up everyone."

The win was Severna Park's second on the day, after a 9-5 win over Maryvale in the opening round. In the consolation game, Maryvale defeated Philadelphia's Springside, 19-6.

For Severna Park coach Carin Peterson, there couldn't have been a more satisfying way to open the season.

"All day long, my defense played super," said Peterson, who felt the key to building an early 7-2 lead against Towson was good ball movement by her offense. "The more we move the ball, the more opportunities we have. It's hard to stay with us, and today we found a lot of open spaces."

After Towson's Lindsay Buchanan scored 1: 25 into the game to give her team a 1-0 lead, the Falcons answered by scoring seven of the next eight goals, including three by Gaither.

Their lead grew to 11-3 after opening the second half with two goals by Sara Zuckerman and one each by Nicki Barnes and Julie Shank. In the first 12 minutes of the half, Severna Park outshot Towson, 8-1.

The Generals did make a late surge, scoring four straight goals -- including three by midfielder Katie Dolan (five goals), in a span of 3: 30 late in the game to pull within four, but time soon ran out on their improbable comeback hopes.

"I'm happy that our team continued to work hard and didn't give up," said Towson coach Jill Altshuler, whose team defeated Springside, 13-3, earlier in the day. "I think that if we hadn't kept throwing the ball away at the beginning of the game it might have been a different story. Against a good team like Severna Park you can't do that. They score off turnovers."

As the Falcons embark on a season in which they hope to unseat defending county and state champ Annapolis, players said the tournament, while making for a rather long day, was good experience.

"We haven't really had much of a chance to scrimmage teams, so this was a good test for us," said Gaither.