Phillylcrosse.com, Posted 5/5/19
From Press Releases
No. 12 Towson (11-4) scored five-straight goals to break a 7-7 tie late in the second quarter to defeat Drexel (7-8) in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship game by a final of 16-14. The Tigers won the conference championship for the fourth time in the last five years.
The Dragons trailed by seven goals but scored the last five to make it a game. The comeback came up just short as the Dragons bid for their second CAA Championship disappeared.
For their play in the tournament, Drexel’s Jimmeh Koita, Collin Mailman and Matthew Varian were named to the CAA All-Tournament Team.
Reid Bowering and Ryan Genord each had three goals and an assist for Drexel in the title matchup. Bowering finished the season with 47 goals, one shy of the Drexel single-season record set by Ben McIntosh in 2014. Genord acted as a first-half spark plug as he notched two goals in the opening 30 minutes and another to begin the second half.
At the X, Koita won 23-of-33 faceoffs and had 18 groundballs in the loss.
But turnovers killed the Dragons on Saturday as the squad coughed it up 19 times including 10 in the first half and six in the third quarter.
With a five-goal deficit at halftime, the Tigers led seven at the end of the third quarter. Towson’s Luke Fromert added a dagger with one second on the clock as he avoided a crease violation, giving TU took a 16-9 edge heading into the fourth quarter.
Drexel attempted a late rally as the Dragons scored the final five goals of the game, all in the fourth quarter, as Towson was not able to find the back of the net for the final 15 minutes. Bowering added the first two to get his hat trick and up to 47 on the campaign. Mailman, McLallen and Nick Fox tallied the final three, 16-14.
With 6:32 to go in the second quarter, Towson’s Grant Maloof scored a man-up goal after a Drexel penalty to give Towson the lead at 8-7. It ended up putting the Tigers ahead for good. Towson scored the next four goal after Maloof’s score to take a 12-7 lead at intermission. A total of five different Tigers scored during the run.
The Tigers were up 7-4 early in the second after a pair of Towson goals within a span of 35 seconds. However, the Dragons were able to get back in it with a three-goal rally. Matt Klinges started the run when he scored his first of the year in transition after getting a feed from George Grippo in the middle of the field.
The Dragons’ man-up unit cut the lead to just one when Bowering found Chris McLallen who fired a shot past Towson goalie Tyler Canto. Ryan Genord ended the run with a running left-handed shot from about 11 yards away, evening the score at 7-7. It was the third tie of the first half and it appeared it would be a tight contest the rest of the way.
D2 – CACC final – Georgian Court 11, Chestnut Hill College 10
Top-seeded, Chestnut Hill College took an 8-7 lead into the final quarter of play at Saturday’s Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Men’s Lacrosse Championship versus #2 Georgian Court University.
But the Lions emerged with their second straight league crown using to a mid-quarter, four-goal run and the impressive play of 2019 CACC Player and Goalkeeper of the Year, junior Austin Geissel to outlast the Griffins’ final push in a 11-10 end. Sophomore attack Carson Rees (5 goals) headlined the Griffins’ offensive efforts with his fifth consecutive game of five goals or more.
A highly-competitive affair, the second CACC Championship – a rematch between the Griffins and Lions – went wire-to-wire with Chestnut Hill College (11-5) and Georgian Court (10-8) never separating by more than three goals (7-4; GCU, 12:31, 3rd) goals.
The Scarlet and Gold struck first, netting the first goal of the affair on a familiar connection between senior attack Casey Brown and Rees just three minutes (11:51) after the opening faceoff, 1-0. The Lions scored the next two tallies (8:04, 6:29), but a Scarlet and Gold exchange from junior attack Scott Wilden to sophomore midfielder Ben Revak (Archmere Academy-DE) with 2:58 remaining in the frame kept the contest tied at 2-2 heading to the second quarter. There, a 4-2 Georgian Court spread earned the defending CACC Champions a 6-4 halftime advantage.
After an initial goal for the Lions, the third quarter was all Chestnut Hill as scores from Rees (7-5, 8:52), Revak (7-6, 8:07), sophomore attack J.R. Howell (7-7, 6:17), and Wilden (5:19) gave the Griffins an 8-7 edge heading to the final frame. Chestnut Hill College scored the first goal of the fourth quarter on Rees’ unassisted effort at 14:08 (9-7), but the two-goal advantage was not enough to endure the Lions’ rally as they evened the spread at 9-9 with 6:49 to play and took the lead for good with a man-up goal at 5:35 (10-9). The Scarlet and Gold looked for a heroic comeback of their own in those final five minutes, but fell a goal short of their mark as the net play of Geissel and an 11th Lion tally (2:37) precipitated the Griffins’ demise.
Geissel (10-7) totaled 24 saves against a 49-44 Chestnut Hill College shot advantage and recovered two ground balls. He benefitted from the defensive efforts of sophomore midfielder Randy Collins (Absegami-NJ), freshman midfielder Devin Bell and junior long-stick midfielder Troy Longley (Holy Cross-NJ), who equally contributed to nine ground balls and three caused turnovers. Bell also led the Lions in goals with four, while senior midfielder Brandon Razler (Archbishop Wood) (3 goals, 2 assists) and junior attack Tanner Lee (Boyertown) played supportive roles with their multi-point performances.
Rees added three ground balls and a caused turnover to his five-goal game, while Wilden finished with four points (2 goals, 2 assists) and a ground ball. Revak added four ground balls to his two tallies. Howell offered a team-high six ground balls to his third-quarter tally (7-7, 6:17). Senior midfielder John Bennett (Boyertown), sophomore midfielder Billy DiMaio, and senior defenseman Christopher Dachowski (Pennridge) headlined Chestnut Hill College’s defensive play in front of freshman Austin Jones ; all three finished the affair with two ground balls and a caused turnover. Jones (11-4) totaled 17 saves and recovered a ground ball in the loss. Rees, Brown, Revak, and senior defensemen Connor Crawford Spring-Ford) earned CACC All-Tournament Team honors.
Chestnut Hill College finishes the 2019 season, their second under Head Coach Mike Terranova, with program-best records of 11-5 overall and 5-0 in CACC play.