Tuesday night might have been doubly costly for the Towson men's lacrosse team.
Not only did the No. 18 Tigers allow No. 15 Ohio State to escape Johnny Unitas Stadium with a 7-6 win, but they also might have lost starting midfielder Andrew Hodgson.
The redshirt senior — who entered the game tied with sophomore attackman Joe Seider for the team lead in points (19) and ranked second in goals (15) — appeared to injure his left leg while catching a pass on the right wing with less than seven minutes left in the second quarter.
Hodgson limped off the field, but did not return to the game. Coach Shawn Nadelen said he had yet to speak to the team's medical staff to get an update on Hodgson's condition, but remained hopeful that the injury is not serious.
"I'm an eternal optimist," Nadelen said. "I'm going to look for the good in it. We've got personnel that have to be able to play and step up and people need to fill a void if he's not able to return this weekend or going forward."
Hodgson's absence had a visible effect on Towson (5-3), which scored just twice in the final 36 minutes. The offense was shut out by the Buckeyes (7-2) over the final 27:54.
"It's tough," Nadelen said of the unit trying to score without Hodgson, who sat out the 2014 season due to a fractured jaw. "We saw what last year was like without having him out there. He's our No. 1 midfield goal scorer. He's an energy guy, allows a lot of other things to open up when he has the ball in his stick, and he also cashes in when guys get him the ball. I think that hurt our offensive productivity, but that's not to say that we didn't have opportunities. We definitely had offensive chances."
Sophomore attackman Ryan Drenner (Westminster) gave the Tigers a 6-3 advantage with 12:54 left in the third quarter when he intercepted a pass from Ohio State junior defenseman Robby Haus (Gilman), intended for redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Tom Carey, who was standing in the crease. Drenner had all the time in the world to throw a couple of fakes at Carey before sliding the ball into the net.
But the Buckeyes scored twice in the period to cut the score to 6-5. Junior attackman Carter Brown converted a centering pass from senior midfielder Turner Evans on an extra-man opportunity with 9:26 remaining.
Brown got his fourth goal of the game when he feinted his way past Towson sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder Tyler Young (Arundel) and went low on redshirt junior goalie Tyler White with 4:12 left in the quarter.
Ohio State tied the score for the first time since the game began when freshman attackman Colin Chell (Boys' Latin) curled around the right post and beat White with 8:15 left in the final period.
The Buckeyes won the ensuing faceoff, and senior midfielder Reegan Comeault dumped the ball to junior attackman Ryan Hunter curling around the right post for the game-winning goal with 8:07 remaining.
The Tigers had several chances in the final two minutes to tie, but couldn't convert a 30-second man-up opportunity when senior midfielder David Planning was whistled for pushing with 1:42 left.
Carey made two of his 11 saves in the final 90 seconds. In the final 10 seconds, sophomore midfielder Mike Lynch (Boys' Latin) dodged down the right alley and attempted to throw the ball back to junior attackman Spencer Parks (St. Paul's) up top, but his pass was off-target and the clock ran out before Towson could regain possession.
Seider (Hereford) paced the Tigers with three goals, and Drenner chipped in one goal and one assist. White finished with a game-high 12 saves, but said the defense could have done more to aid the offense.
"Statistically, if you give up seven, you'd like to think you'd win," he said. "But there's definitely a couple goals that we let up that we shouldn't have. Everyone's probably going to talk about how the offense went stagnant in the second half, but we as a defense believe it's just as much our fault. We have to be better clearing the ball and be better stopping the ball, especially in that second half. We need to get the ball to the offense more and let them get going."
Brown (Calvert Hall) led all scorers with five points on four goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Jesse King added two assists, and fifth-year senior Christopher May won 10 of 16 faceoffs and scooped up a game-best six ground balls.