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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - It all comes down to this for the Towson men's lacrosse team. A win and you're in. A loss and you need help.
That's the scenario the Tigers face as they square off against an improved St. Joseph's (5-9, 0-5 CAA) squad on Saturday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. in Philadelphia at Finnesey Field.
The Tigers (7-6) have dropped three straight games to put them at 2-3 in CAA play, tied with Hofstra for the final spot in the CAA playoffs. Towson owns the tiebreaker over Hofstra due to their 10-9 come-from-behind win over the Pride in Hempstead on March 31. If the Tigers win, they are in the CAA Tournament. If they lose, they'll need Hofstra to lose to Penn State on Saturday to earn a berth.
Towson
has only faced the Hawks once and it was last season at home. The
Tigers scored their most goals of the season in taking the victory, 15-2. Towson was led by senior
midfielder Peter Mezzanotte, who scored two goals, dished out two assists and set a school-record with eight caused turnovers.
The Hawks, who are led by first-year coach Taylor Wray, opened with two losses against Lehigh and at Bryant, before winning two straight against VMI and Wagner on the road. They opened their
conference schedule with an 8-4 loss at home to local rival Drexel, followed by a home loss to Brown. They got their first home win on March 13 vs. Quinnipiac, downing the Bobcats 8-7.
On March 24, they had another hard-fought home loss to Penn State, 7-3. That followed with road losses to UMass (15-3), Hofstra (13-9) and Delaware (16-6). They were back home on April 17, but fell to Penn, 9-5.
On April 21, St. Joe's went back on the road, defeating Mercer 14-9 and Marist 10-9 in overtime.
The Hawks have made great strides after going 0-12 overall and 0-6 in the CAA last
year.
This year's team shoots 21% and 56% of
their shots are on goal. In man-up opportunities, they are scoring at a
32.6% clip, and they are allowing opponents to score 33.9% of the time. They have been outshot 508 to 449 and out-groundballed,
415-333. This is a team that wants to keep the score low, as they are
allowing just 9.77 goals per game, but are scoring just 6.8 goals per
game. They are 81% on clear attempts and have won 37.4% of their
face-off attempts.
On attack, sophomore Ryan McGee
(6-0, 180) has been their go-to guy. McGee leads the team with 35 goals
and 48 points, while shooting 33.3%. He also has 35 groundballs, six
man-up goals and 31 turnovers. He also scored the game-winner with one
second left in the overtime win over Marist. Tall junior
Kyle Williams (6-3) is second in scoring with 27 points, scoring 13
goals and dishing out a team-high 14 assists. He also has 23 groundballs, 22 turnovers and shoots 19%. Freshman Michael Doougherty (6-4, 180) is the third attackman, who has six goals and four assists in five starts.
At midfield, senior Bobby Hurley (5-10) adds speed and 10 goals on 76 shots. Senior Augustus Quinzani (5-11) is fourth in scoring with 12 goals and happens to be the younger brother of Max, who was a Duke All-American attackman. Johnny Simanski, a 6-foot-1 sophomore who played at nearby Loyola H.S., rounds out the top midfield with seven goals and seven assists.
St. Joe's has
rotated face-off men as Will Abbott (46-105, 44%) and Billy Annesley (44-120, 37%) have each seen time in the face-off "X" this season,.
On defense, 6-foot-3 senior Matt Germain leads an improved unit with 12 caused turnovers and 20 ground balls.
In goal, senior Griffin Ferrigan (6-2) has kept the Hawks in games this year with his 160 saves and 56% save percentage.
Towson faces St. Joe's on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on AM-1570 WNST. I'll also be blogging starting at 12:15 p.m.
-TowsonTigers.com-
-TowsonTigers.com-
