Towson's 7-5 upset of No. 6 Johns Hopkins at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Tuesday was the kind of season opener for which the Tigers had hoped, beginning the season by snapping a 19-game losing streak to a Blue Jays team (1-1) that many are picking to advance to the Final Four in May.
But with No. 7 Loyola Maryland (0-1) on Feb. 18 at 12 p.m. at home as the next opponent on the schedule, the Tigers know that they can't afford to be content with one victory.
"The outcome today was what we expected," coach Shawn Nadelen said after the win. "We went into this game confident, knowing that we had a great opportunity to win this game. It was the outcome we expected and the outcome we achieved as a team. Our guys played hard to earn that.
"Now we've got to understand that next opponent up is not only Loyola, but also ourselves. We've got to take that in practice and understand that we have to keep the focus, keep the energy high, keep the competitiveness against each other and preparation sharp and be able to build from this. Any sports fan will know that there are teams that have wins like this and have letdowns on the next game. So we need to make sure that these guys don't get that into their heads."
Nadelen is speaking from experience. In the three years since he succeeded Tony Seaman as Tigers coach, Towson is 2-2 in games after knocking off an opponent ranked in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association polls.
The players will get Wednesday off to savor the victory and rest their bodies, but senior defenseman JoJo Ostrander said the team will put the win behind it when practice resumes Thursday.
"It's not about our opponent," he said. "It's just about ourselves. We can do all the preparation and all that, but it just comes down to us. … We just move on from that. It's up to us."
Circling back to "Three Things to Watch" …
1. Eyeballing Brown. Junior attackman Ryan Brown led Johns Hopkins in scoring, but he managed just two goals on eight shots. That's a far cry from the seven goals on 14 attempts that the Sykesville resident and Calvert Hall graduate had in the team's 16-4 rout of UMBC on Saturday. In his first career start, Tigers junior defenseman Andrew Cordes kept Brown in front of him, and a zone defense forced Brown to try do his damage from the perimeter.
"We knew how special of a player he was and how dynamic he could be with his hands free -- to shoot the ball, to work it with skip passes and feeds, and off-ball," Nadelen said. "So I think our guys did a real good job of identifying where he was, trying to suffocate him as much as we could. Andrew Cordes making his first start this year and getting matched up on Ryan, that's a tough task. He had some terrific plays against him."
2. Matching Towson's energy level. As convincing as the Blue Jays' win against UMBC was, that game took place just three days before Tuesday night's showdown with Towson. Johns Hopkins appeared to be in control after taking a 3-1 lead with 9:13 left in the second quarter, but the Tigers scored five unanswered goals and forced the Blue Jays to press in the fourth quarter when their energy reserves appeared close to empty.
"We spent the fourth quarter chasing ... to get back into the game," Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. "It's tough to do that after playing on Saturday. But nonetheless, I'll take the blame. It falls on my shoulders. We didn't do a good enough job having our team ready to play tonight."
3. Fighting for faceoffs? The Blue Jays' 15-8 rout of Towson last year was fueled by a 17of 26 showing in faceoffs (65.4 percent), and they won 15 of 22 (68.2 percent) against UMBC. But the Tigers got the upper hand Tuesday night. After sophomore Alec Burckley won just 1 of 5 faceoffs (20 percent) and was assessed three faceoff violations in the first half, the team turned to junior long-stick midfielder Patrick Conroy, who won 7 of 10 (70 percent) and helped Towson edge Johns Hopkins, 8-7, on faceoffs.
"I thought Alec did a good job off the start," Nadelen said. "… I still have faith in Alec, but I felt like we needed to make it more of a scrum at that point and not try to be to much about winning the draw outright. Pat's a warrior. Pat's a guy that we know what we're going to get out of him. He has some actual technique and skill at the faceoff. He's not just out there to muck it up. He's got decent faceoff technique.
"We just stuck with him and knew that was going to be the way we went. We knew what we were going to get out of those guys. Pat and the wing guys really delivered on the faceoff play."