TOWSON, Md. - Freshman attackman Matt Hughes matched his season high by scoring three goals and added an assist as the 20th-ranked Tigers (7-7) advanced to the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Lacrosse Championship Game with a 13-6 victory over 16th-ranked Massachusetts (8-6) at Johnny Unitas® Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The top seed in the CAA Tournament, the Tigers will host second-seeded Delaware in the CAA Championship Game on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. The Blue Hens earned a 15-12 victory over third-seeded Drexel on Wednesday night to earn a berth in the title game.
"We did a good job defensively and after struggling early, we did some good things on offense," Towson Coach Tony Seaman said. "We got some good contributions from Hughes and Christian [Pastirik] tonight.
"We haven't done anything yet though," Coach Seaman added. "We did the same exact thing a year ago against Drexel and lost against Villanova in the final. So, Saturday afternoon against Delaware is going to be the key."
The Minutemen opened up a 2-0 lead in the first nine minutes of the opening quarter on back-to-back goals by freshman attackman Will Manny and senior midfielder Bobby Hayes.
But, the Tigers responded by scoring three straight goals, including a pair of Hughes markers, to take a 3-2 lead with 12:46 remaining in the second quarter.
After junior Ryan Liebel scored to tie the game at 3-3 with an unassisted goal, the Tigers regained the edge with back-to-back goals from senior midfielder Will Harrington and sophomore midfielder Carl Iacona and led by 5-3 at the intermission.
Just five seconds into the third quarter, the Minutemen cut the deficit to 5-4 when sophomore attackman Steve D'Amario scored off a feed from sophomore midfielder Anthony Toresco.
However, the Tigers responded by scoring seven unanswered goals over a 21-minute span to take a commanding 12-4 lead. Graduate student midfielder Christian Pastirik scored all three of his goals during the run while Hughes added a goal with an assist.
With 5:10 remaining in the fourth quarter, sophomore midfielder Greg Rushing scored to end a nearly 25-minute scoring drought for the Minutemen.
The teams traded goals in the final 51 seconds to end the game.
While Lamon recorded his second "hat trick" of the season to lead the Tigers, Pastirik scored three goals for his fifth "hat trick" of the season. Iacona added a pair of goals for the Tigers, who were outshot by a 37-30 margin.
Junior goalkeeper Travis Love made 11 saves, including eight in the second half, as the Tiger defense held the Minutemen to just six goals, which matched a season low.
D'Amario led the Minutemen with a goal and an assist while sophomore goalkeeper Tim McCormack made 12 saves.
The Minutemen have lost four of their last five games after opening the season with a 7-2 record.
The Tigers and the Blue Hens will be meeting for the second time this season when they play on Saturday. Led by three goals and an assist from Pastirik, the Tigers edged Delaware by a 9-7 margin on April 3 at Unitas Stadium.
The winner of Saturday's game will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
CAA Semi-Finals: #20 Towson University 13, #16 University of Massachusetts 6
Massachusetts (8-6) 2-1-1-2 / 6
Towson (7-7) 1-4-5-3 / 13
Goals: UMASS - Bobby Hayes 1, Steve D'Amario 1, Will Manny 1, Ryan Liebel 1, Colin Fleming 1, Greg Rushing 1; TOW - Matt Hughes 3, Christian Pastirik 3, Carl Iacona 2, Will Harrington 2, Tim Stratton 1, Matt Lamon 1, John Lamon 1. Assists: UMASS - Steve D'Amario 1, Mike Fetterly 1, Bobby Hayes 1, Anthony Toresco 1; TOW - Brock Armour 1, Matt Hughes 1, Matt Lamon 1, Tim Stratton 1. Saves: UMASS - Tim McCormack 12 (51:30, 12 goals allowed), Steve Mahle 1 (8:30, 1 goals allowed); TOW - Travis Love 11 (59:05, 5 goals allowed), Rob Wheeler 0 (0:55, 1 goals allowed). Shots: UMASS - 37; TOW - 30. Extra-Man Opportunities: UMASS - 0 for 1; TOW - 1 for 1. Attendance: 1,208.
Post-Game Notes:
- The Tigers and the Minutemen were meeting for the third time in the all-time series which Towson now leads by a 2-1 margin ... The two teams met on April 10 with Towson earning a 10-9 victory over the Minutemen at Garber Field.
- The Minutemen were making their first-ever appearance in a conference tournament ... They were also making their first visit to Towson.
- The Tigers improved to 6-2 this season at home ... The Tigers have won five straight games at Unitas Stadium.
- The Tigers are now 9-3 all-time in the CAA Tournament ... Of the 12 games they have played, 11 of them have occurred at Unitas Stadium ... The Tigers' only road CAA Tournament game was at Delaware in the 2005 CAA Championship Game.
- The Tigers are also 6-1 all-time in the CAA semi-finals with their victory over the Minutemen on Wednesday night.
- The Tigers earned their first win this season when allowing the game's first goal ... They had lost five games when allowing the opening goal.
- The Tigers scored a season-high 13 goals in the win over Massachusetts on Wednesday ... It was their highest scoring output since a 16-8 victory over Sacred Heart on April 4 of last season.
- The Tigers also allowed a season-low six goals in the victory.
- Hughes matched his season high with his three-goal effort against the Minutemen ... He scored three goals in the Tigers' 15-10 loss against Virginia on March 21.
- Hughes also had a career-high four points in the win over Massachusetts ... It was his fourth multi-point game of the season.
- Pastirik recorded his fifth "hat trick" of the season against Massachusetts on Wednesday ... Of those five "hat tricks," four of them have come at Unitas Stadium.
- Pastirik has now recorded eight multi-goal games in his career ... He also has 13 multi-point efforts.
- Harrington scored a goal for the 14th straight game ... He is the only Towson player to score a goal in all 14 games this season.
- Harrington posted his career 14th multi-goal game in the win over the Minutemen ... He also has 18 career multi-point games after his two points on Wednesday night.
- Pastirik has recorded a point in all 14 games for the Tigers this season ... Harrington and Pastirik are the only players to record a point in every game.
- Iacona has scored a goal in six straight games ... During the last six games, he has scored eight goals with one assist.
- Iacona now has seven multi-goal games in his career and ten multi-point games in his career.
