Waiting an extra day paid off for Towson in a few ways.
The Tigers' 9-6 victory against Georgetown at Multi-Sport Field in Washington, D.C., was originally scheduled for Saturday. But forecasts of snow, sleet and freezing rain pushed the game back to Sunday.
So instead of playing in adverse conditions as many other Division I programs had done, the No. 16 Tigers and Hoyas played under sunny skies and temperatures well into the 40-degree range. And Towson took advantage by scoring the game's first seven goals.
The extra day was beneficial for senior goalkeeper Tyler White, who was battered for 12 goals in a little more than two quarters of play in Wednesday's 15-11 loss against No. 8 Loyola Maryland.
"I know personally, I was a little sore," he said. "So to be able to lay on the couch and do nothing all day was pretty good for me. It was fun to get out here today in great weather and get a win."
Redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Hodgson said the players used the additional time to study a Georgetown team that had lost by just two goals to No. 2 Notre Dame on Feb. 14.
"You got an extra day to look at your opponent and scout them out and really graph your own game plan and then recover your body a little bit more," said Hodgson, who did not play in the Tigers' 8-7 win against the Hoyas on Feb. 22, 2014. "So it was good -- in my case, especially. So it definitely helped with having that extra day preparation-wise."
Dangerous low temperatures exacerbated by strong winds forced Towson to practice indoors Friday, but the team returned to the turf at Johnny Unitas Stadium on Saturday.
"We actually scrimmaged on Saturday on the field luckily just as the snow started falling," coach Shawn Nadelen said. "I thought it was important for us after being inside on Friday to get outside and have some scrimmage time and look through our offense, defense, substitutions, and get back into that frame of mind. … The guys handled it well coming down here for a noon game."
Conversely, Georgetown looked sloppy and lethargic Sunday, which caught coach Kevin Warne by surprise.
"Quite honestly, I thought we were really sharp yesterday and really sharp on Thursday," he said. "We weren't able to practice Friday, but I thought we were really sharp and dialed in, and I was looking forward to the guys running around today. But that first quarter, that's a huge hole."
Circling back to "Three Things to Watch" …
1. Needing more from the midfield. Hodgson led all scorers with three goals and junior Ben McCarty and senior Justin Mabus posted goals in the first and second quarters. At times, the Tigers elected to run a fourth attackman out of the box -- either sophomore Ryan Drenner or redshirt senior Max Siskind -- to match up against a short-stick defensive midfielder, and that strategy resulted in a goal by Siskind that extended their advantage to 4-0 with 9:15 left in the first quarter.
"We're going to play the hot hand," Nadelen said of the team's top two midfields. "Andrew is always there, but Justin, Cooch [senior Greg Cuccinello] are our guys. Ben is still working through his injury, and [sophomore] Mike Lynch is inexperienced. Those five guys in the midfield help, and then our fourth attackman coming in just gives us depth that we really haven't had in years past. It's good managing it and making sure that the right people are out there and are fresh and running what we need them to."
2. Needing more from the faceoff unit. Statistically, sophomore Alec Burckley was credited with just six wins in 15 draws. But he went 6 of 11 in the first half against Hoyas fifth-year senior Gabriel Mendola (a Harvard transfer), which helped Towson race to an 8-1 advantage at halftime. And Burckley, who contributed to 12 faceoff violations in the first two games, moved early just once.
"It definitely builds on my confidence for the rest of the season," he said. "We have pretty big aspirations for the season. So a game like this only helps me because after the last two performances that I had, it definitely wasn't too good of a feeling. So this definitely builds my confidence and it's going to help going later into the season."