With star midfielder Andrew Hodgson on the sideline with a hipinjury, Towson got superb play from its defense and a solid offensive effort to defeat Massachusetts, 6-3, Saturday at Minnegan Stadium.
Entering the game, Massachusetts had been averaging 11 goals a game, a major concern for the Tigers, who lost Hodgson for the season with the major hip injury suffered against Ohio State on March 17.
But the Minutemen's top two scorers, attackmen Nick Mariano (17 goals, 12 assists) and Peter Lindley (14, 7), were held to a combined one goal and one assist. Towson close defensemen JoJo Ostrander, Mike Lowe and Nick Gorman dominated the action, controlled the pace and frustrated Massachusetts.
"Towson played an excellent game," Minutemen coach Greg Cannella said. "They got the style they wanted; they got the pace they wanted. There were no false steps and their recovery was excellent.
"We talked to our guys and told them we had to move better without the ball, we have to move quicker and faster. We changed from one set to another but they adjusted. They did a nice job on us."
No. 18 Towson (7-3 overall, 1-0 Colonial Athletic Association) also got a strong effort from goalie Tyler White, who finished with 14 saves. It was apparent that the Minutemen (3-6, 1-1) thought they could shoot low on the 6-foot-4, 230 pound White, a junior from Elmira Heights, N.Y.
But White was outstanding. If he wasn't swallowing up the low shots, he was forcing Massachusetts to shoot wide of the goal. Fiftteen of the Minutemen's shots weren't even on cage.
"Our defense was really giving me good shots and I was really feeling it today," White said. "Me being a big guy, I knew they were going to shoot low. They were a fake high, shoot low team, and we saw that on film."
The Tigers entered the game with the No. 4-ranked scoring defense in the country allowing an average of just 7.33 a game. Besides White and the close defense, Towson also got strong efforts from long pole midfielders Tyler Mayes and Pat Conroy.
But the Tigers still needed to get a solid effort from the offense, especially with Hodgson and his 15 goals and four assists missing.
Midfielder Mike Lynch (Boys' Latin) had two goals and junior attackman Spencer Parks (St. Paul's) had two assists for Towson. Parks also scored the game's first goal off a feed from behind from attackman Ryan Drenner with 6:47 left in the first quarter and senior middie Justin Mabus scored on a low bouncer with 55 seconds remaining in the quarter to put Towson ahead, 2-0.
Towson managed a 4-1 lead at the half and kept the three-goal lead, 5-2, after three quarters. The Minutemen climbed to within 5-3 on an extra-man goal from Mariano with 10:53 left in the fourth, but the Tigers pretty much sealed the game on a 20-yard bomb from sophomore attackman Joe Seider with 4:07 left. It put Towson up, 6-3.
The victory came in the conference season opener for Towson, which closes out its season on the road against Delaware, Fairfield, Drexel, and hosting Hofstra, all CAA games.
"It's exciting to get the first win in the CAA," Towson coach Shawn Nadelen said. "Historically, games between Towson and Massachusetts are always physical and low scoring, and you have to find a way to win. We had to grind it out, and we did. The way they have been playing and the way we have been play, we knew it was going to be tough scoring goals."