All spring, the defense for the Towson men's lacrosse had set the tone, while the offense usually did enough to collect wins. On Saturday, the offense failed to keep up its end of the bargain.
Hofstra snapped a three-game losing skid and blasted the No. 12 Tigers in a 9-2 upset before an announced 1,291 at Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson.
A victory would have helped Towson clinch at least a share of the regular-season championship in the Colonial Athletic Association and move one step closer to capturing the top seed and homefield advantage in the conference tournament.
Instead, the Tigers slipped to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in the league, lost a four-game winning streak, and must defeat Drexel on the road on Saturday to assure that Saturday's game wasn't the team's final appearance of the season at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
"[Hofstra] showed up on the field ready to go. We did not," coach Shawn Nadelen said. "They were able to earn the win pretty easily against us today."
The first priority for Towson is figuring out a suddenly toothless offense that had scored 8.8 goals during its streak. The Tigers did hit three pipes, but they made a Hofstra defense that had surrendered 33 goals in its last three contests look impenetrable.
Trailing 2-0 after goals from Pride junior midfielder Korey Hendrickson and junior attackman Sam Llinares, Towson couldn't solve freshman goalkeeper Jack Concannon, who made two saves and was pitching a shutout before he was forced to leave with 13 minutes, 17 seconds left in the second quarter because of a broken string on his stick.
Concannon was relieved by senior Chris Selva, who stopped three shots before surrendering back-to-back goals by Tigers sophomore attackman Ryan Drenner within a 2:18 span of the period.
But for the remaining 35:05, Selva did his best brick-wall impersonation, turning aside nine shots and blanking Towson in the second half.
"I think we got off to a really slow start," redshirt senior attackman Max Siskind said. "I think our first three possessions, we had three turnovers. We're the type of team where if we get out to a hot start, we can be really good. But we didn't get out to that start today, and the shots weren't falling. Mentally, we didn't have it today."
Hofstra coach Seth Tierney remarked about the serendipitous nature of Selva's heroics.
"Chris Selva, in some strange way, works his way back into the goal due to a broken stick and he turns out to be basically the reason why we won," Tierney said. "He made body saves, he made stick saves, he cleared the ball. Defensively, to hold that team to two is certainly a feat."
Drenner, a Westminster resident and Westminster High graduate, was the only player to find the net against Selva, but the entire Tigers offense looked stagnant and lethargic in posting a game in which it scored two goals or less for the second time since Nadelen replaced Tony Seaman for the 2012 campaign.
"We just didn't have any energy," Drenner said. "I felt like our shots weren't going as fast as they normally go. And we let the goalie get hot."
Tierney said the team considered going back to Concannon, but stuck with Selva, who had started the team's first 11 games. And Selva wasn't the only defensive standout.
Junior defenseman Finn Sullivan shut out Towson sophomore attackman Joe Seider (Hereford), who had led the team in goals (26) and points (31). And senior long-stick midfielder Ryan Rielly gave up just one assist to junior midfielder Spencer Parks (St. Paul's), who ranked first in assists (13) and second in points (28).
"It was a great defensive day for us," Selva said. "We played great, communicated. They're a great team. They have kids who can shoot from anywhere. Our defense played great, communicated, and we were just on today."
Tigers redshirt junior goalie Tyler White made six saves before getting pulled after allowing his seventh goal with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Matt Hoy surrendered the final two goals.
Llinares raised his team lead in goals to 32 and points to 56. Sophomore attackman Trevor Kupecky added three points on two goals and one assist.