TOWSON, Md. - Experienced teams with nine returning starters usually know how to take advantage of the mistakes of an inexperienced squad.
When you look at back at the Tigers' 12-6 loss at #2 Johns Hopkins on Friday night, there are many things they did well and a few things that they have to work on.
"I thought we were getting decent possession on the offensive end," said first-year Coach Shawn Nadelen. "The tempo was good offensively. Defensively, we were in pretty good position. They got a couple of goals out of quick turnovers and changes of possession. They buried it on us and it swung the momentum in their favor.
"To stop a run, you have to get goals and make stops," Coach Nadelen added. "At times, we didn't do that effectively as we needed to.
Towson has a very young team especially at the midfield and defense areas. Making it more difficult on Friday night was the fact the junior long stick midfielder Alec Jernstedt was out due to an illness. At 6-foot-2, Jernstedt is very athletic and had three goals as a defender last year.
So, Nadelen moved senior defenseman John Kenyon back to his normal position of long stick midfield and freshman Jojo Ostrander took over on close defense to have the first start of his career.
Kenyon and sophomore John Fennessy were returning starters from last year's club while Towson has two new starting defensemen in senior Sean Sheehe and Ostrander.
Additionally, star defensive midfielder Peter Mezzanotte and Kevin Lalley are gone from last year's team, giving the Tigers two new starters at that position.
Junior Andrew Wascavage has taken over for senior Travis Love in goal. In just his second career start, Wascavage saw 42 shots on Friday and made a career-high 11 saves. Many of Towson's mistakes (21 turnovers) turned into Blue Jays' fast break opportunities on the other end and they cashed in on most of them. Wascavage probably kept the margin from being larger as he made several dazzling saves.
"I'm starting to get into a rhythm," said Wascavage, whose brother Joe ('10) was a starting defenseman for the Tigers. "It hasn't really fazed me starting. It's feel like just another game.
"There's pressure just to play well," added Wascavage. "I've been trying to beat (Love) out since I've been here. I think I've been able to do that now. I just want to stay out there and keep competing."
On the offensive end at midfield, Towson rotated five players with just one senior in Michael Brashears, who had played mainly on man-up situations in his first three years. Freshmen Justin Mabus and Greg Cuccinello were playing just the second games of their careers and sophomores Thomas DeNapoli and Andrew Hodgson were playing at historic Homewood Field for the first time in their careers.
One player who stood out was redshirt freshman Robby Zoppo, who missed last season due to an injury. The Baltimore native who played at Calvert Hall College H.S. scored two goals against Johns Hopkins and now is tied for the team lead with four goals.
The future is extremely bright for Zoppo, who is a member of the United States Under-19 National Team, along with the rest of the freshmen and sophomores.
So many different pieces and players in new roles may have hampered the team's ability to clear. Towson converted just 17 of 25 (68%) attempts on Friday. The problem was not evident in their first game against Jacksonville when the Tigers cleared 19 of 20 tries and last year when they cleared at a 84.4% success rate.
"They seemed like they had all our options covered," said Wascavage. "We made a mistake not pushing the ball up the field as fast as we could. We were playing too slow and let them have time to cover all our guys. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot."
One of the biggest issues coming into the season was at the face-off "X." Last year, the Tigers won just 45.5% of their face-offs. On Friday, junior Matt Thomas won 12 of 20 draws and was simply dominating in the first three quarters.
"I thought Matt did very well for us," said Nadelen. "He was doing such a good job where they had to put a pole up there to stop him and even then, getting the ball was difficult for them to do"
Nadelen added, "For us to have that many opportunities and not capitalize offensively, it was a big part of why we kept it at six goals instead of 12 or 13."
Not to take anything away from the Tigers' next opponent, Loyola, or any of their other foes, but the good news is that Johns Hopkins could likely be the best team Towson plays all year.
Towson will have many challenges ahead of them but the toughest one was likely played Friday night.
