Towson's season-opening 7-5 win over then-No. 6 Johns Hopkins a week ago was a team-wide effort, but three players overcame health concerns to help.
Sophomore attackman Joe Seider and junior midfielder Ben McCarty had only returned to practice the week before after dealing with unspecified injuries, and redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Hodgson was making his first appearance since surgery for an undisclosed ailment sidelined him for the entire 2014 season.
All three played critical roles in the win against the Blue Jays, who dropped to No. 9 in the latest Cascade/Maverik media poll. Hodgson and Seider – who both started – led the No. 16 Tigers (1-0) in goals with two each, and McCarty had one assist while running on the second line.
"I like what all three of them brought to the table," coach Shawn Nadelen said Monday. "I felt like Ben was pushing a little bit more than he needed to, just trying to get himself into the groove with a couple shots that he took, which were understandable. He hadn't played in any scrimmages and that was his first live action and has really been limited in practice with things. But Joe looked decent. He still didn't have that step off the dodge that he's shown. But he's still able to shoot the ball well. I thought Andrew always seems to just find that gear – whether it be in practice or in games. I thought he looked pretty sharp."
All three players played extensively, and Nadelen said the amount of playing time was deliberate.
"We were going to put them out there as much as we could and push them and see what they could handle," he said. "Ben McCarty's a guy like Andrew where he plays offense, defense and wings on faceoffs. We kind of scaled that back for him given that his injury was much more recent and prevalent. So we didn't let him take any wings and limited him on any looks getting into the defensive hole as much as we could. With Joe, it was a pretty balanced game with possession time on both ends."