WASHINGTON — Sunday was a day of redemption for the Towson men's lacrosse team.
Tyler White proved he can still stop shots. Alec Burckley showed he can win faceoffs without moving early. And the offense demonstrated it can overpower an opponent from the beginning.
More importantly, the No. 16 Tigers rebounded from their 15-11 loss Wednesday to No. 8 Loyola Maryland with a 9-6 win over host Georgetown at Multi-Sport Field. Playing a game that had been postponed from Saturday because of snow, Towson improved to 2-1 for the first time since 2007.
"You can either go 1-2 and you start your first three games with a losing record or you can start out 2-1," redshirt senior midfielder Andrew Hodgson said. "They came out with a lot of energy, and we had to match that right out of the gate. Luckily, we were able to get off to a good start right away and just keep rolling."
The start was instrumental for the Tigers. After trailing the Greyhounds, 6-2, after the first quarter Wednesday, Towson scored six times in the first quarter and added one more in the second before the Hoyas got on the scoreboard.
Hodgson had a hat trick in that stretch, and sophomore attackman Joe Seider (Hereford) posted a goal and an assist. Towson also received goals from junior attackman Spencer Parks (St. Paul's), redshirt senior attackman Max Siskind and junior midfielder Ben McCarty (South Carroll) during the run.
"We've been on the flip side of that," coach Shawn Nadelen said. "Against Loyola, we were down, 4-0, and in years past, we've been on the flip side. So we know how much pressure that puts on the other team.
"It's also tough to manage, and we showed some issues with that. But it's just good to see our guys show up today after pushing the game back a little bit and be able to stay focused and execute as we did."
While the offense played well, the defense was equally efficient. Georgetown managed just five shots in the first quarter and even when the Hoyas took 11 attempts in the second, they scored just once.
The key was White. After making just three saves and surrendering 12 goals before getting pulled 5:13 into the third quarter of Wednesday's loss, the senior made a pair of sparkling stops in the first half and finished with a game-high 10 saves.
"As everyone knows, I probably played one of the worst games of my career last week," White said. "It's just one of those positions where you're not going to be able to go out and play the game you want to every single time. So to come out today and have a way better performance, my 'D' helped me out a lot. Last week, along with my bad play, we kind of felt like our feet were stuck in cement a little bit, and we didn't slide the way we wanted to. So we made it a big thing all week, to slide and get going on defense.
"Especially in that first half, I think you saw that we were flying around and winning those 50-50 balls and giving me a chance to get comfortable and start my game. So once I got going, I was doing pretty well. It was huge to get a good game under my belt today and get my confidence back."
Like White, Burckley bounced back Sunday. After winning just 23.1 percent (3 of 13) of his faceoffs and contributing to 12 faceoff violations in the first two games, the sophomore won 6 of 11 faceoffs in the first half and moved early just once.
"The first two games, didn't really have the performance I wanted to," said Burckley, who lost all four faceoffs he took in the second half. "So it was good for me to come back and kind of build my confidence."
Trailing, 8-1, at halftime, Georgetown outscored the Tigers, 5-1, in the second half. But three penalties totaling 2:30 in the final three minutes of regulation opened the door for Towson to run out the clock and secure the victory.
With the Hoyas absorbing another slow start after a 14-12 loss at No. 2 Notre Dame on Feb. 14, coach Kevin Warne, a former Maryland assistant, said the team can't afford early deficits.
"I think the big thing with us is consistency right now," Warne said. "We've got to be more consistent. This is two games in a row where we came out down 4-1 last week and 6-0. So we're going to have to change some things to get a quicker start."