(Photo Courtesy of Towson Athletics)
Just three days after earning their first CAA win of the season over Fairfield, the Towson Tigers welcomed the Hofstra Pride, who they had fallen to, 8-7, nearly two weeks prior and was coming off a huge win over UMass, to Johnny Unitas Stadium for a Tuesday afternoon conference clash. The contest kicked off a four-game season-ending stretch for Towson against the top four teams in the CAA.
Needless to say, Tuesday is still for the hunter as the Tigers pulled out a 10-8 upset victory over the Tigers to add even more craziness to what has been a wacky year in the CAA.
Brody McLean led the Towson offense with four goals, which included the second to last goal of the contest for the Tigers to push their lead to 9-4 early in the fourth. Jake McLean also found the back of the net twice, including the final goal of the contest to make it a 10-4 game with 6:34 left.
Hofstra saw Ryan Tierney lead the way with three goals and an assist for four points. He was held scoreless in the first and third quarters as Koby Smith did as good a job as any to limit Tierney. Brian Herber went 15-for-20 at the faceoff dot to continue what has been a very successful season for the senior.
In addition to Smith, the Towson defense saw freshman Colby Barsz (2GB/4CT) and redshirt freshman Garrett Zungailia (3GB/2CT) have two of their best performances of the season. Shane Brennan made 14 saves in cage to anchor the aggressive Tiger defense.
After Towson exploded out of the gate with a three-goal run, which included a backhanded garbage goal in traffic from Carson Gaeger to get the scoring started, to get ahead 3-0 early, the Pride struck back late in the first with a Colton Rudd goal.
The Tigers continued to find success on the offensive end in the second, outscoring Hofstra 4-2 in the quarter to take a 7-3 lead at the half. And while they were able to stretch their lead out to 10-4 with Andrew Milani scoring one of just two goals in the third and Brody and Jake McLean scoring the final two goals of the game for the Tigers, Hofstra eventually found their groove late in the contest.
Hofstra ended the contest on a four-goal run, which included two from Justin Sykes, and cut the Tigers’ lead to 10-8 with 58 seconds left in the contest. The Pride won the ensuing faceoff and immediately called a timeout, but were unable to capitalize as James Philbin’s shot went wide left and Shane Brennan stopped one from Riley Forte to seal the deal.
Towson (4-3, 2-3 CAA) takes on UMass on the road on Saturday while Hofstra (6-3, 3-2 CAA) will host Delaware.
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