Andrew Hodgson's left leg injury will prevent him from playing Saturday in No. 18 Towson's road game against Binghamton. It's not clear when or if the redshirt senior midfielder will return.
Coach Shawn Nadelen confirmed this morning that Hodgson will stay home this weekend and said that the starter – who is being described as week-to-week – will undergo further tests next week.
"I believe in what we do, and I know it's going to continue," Nadelen said. "We still have very good players in both the attack and midfield positions. Definitely without Andrew this weekend, we're moving forward, but it's a blow. He's been having a great year. After coming off the [broken jaw] injury last year, he's come out and been shooting the ball really well and getting assists and generating offense. It's still a blow, but we have guys capable of filling in and allowing us to be successful offensively."
Nadelen said Hodgson suffered the injury while planting his leg midway through the second quarter of Tuesday night's eventual 7-6 loss to No. 15 Ohio State. Hodgson limped off the field and did not return to the game.
"Obviously, for this weekend, it's serious," Nadelen said. "But we'll see what the tests tell us next week. We know we've got to prepare, and it gives our guys an opportunity to step up to the plate this weekend, and then we'll go from there. It could be serious, and we'll plan for that. But we'll be excited if he can return."
Without Hodgson, who ranks second on the team in goals (15) and points (19), the Tigers (5-3) moved junior Spencer Parks (St. Paul's) from attack to midfield to run with seniors Greg Cuccinello and Justin Mabus. Redshirt senior Max Siskind joined sophomores Joe Seider (Hereford) and Ryan Drenner (Westminster) on attack.
At times, the first line also included junior Ben McCarty (South Carroll), sophomore Mike Lynch (Boys' Latin) or sophomore Tyler Konen.
The offense scored just two goals after Hodgson's departure, but Nadelen expressed confidence that the unit will regain its rhythm in time for Saturday's game against the Bearcats (2-3).
"I thought the offense was generating looks that we wanted. We just weren't finishing the ball," he said. "In the fourth quarter, we definitely forced some looks. We had a couple mistakes where we threw the ball out of our sticks before we even had contact from the defenders. Those were just mistakes on our end, and we had a couple of rushed possessions, which is a little bit uncharacteristic. Whether Andrew was on the field or not, I don't know if that would have made a difference."