UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Tiger men's lacrosse team (10-7) withstood a late rally from No. 9 Penn State (12-4) and edged the Nittany Lions, 11-10, to claim its first Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) title since 2005 on Friday afternoon at the PSU Lacrosse Field.
The Nittany Lions outscored Towson 4-3 in the fourth quarter to try and rally from an 8-6 deficit at the end of the third. The game was tightly contested until late in the second quarter and into the third when the Tigers broke it open with a five-goal run.
Towson was making its first appearance in a CAA final since 2010, when the Tigers fell to Delaware, 12-9 on May 8.
The 2013 CAA championship was Towson's fourth title in its ninth appearance at the CAA Tournament.
Towson's Thomas DeNapoli, Jordan Fortmann and Ben McCarty were named to the All-Tournament team. Senior goalkeeper Andrew Wascavage received Most Outstanding Player. In his second season as the Tigers' head coach, Shawn Nadelen's won his first CAA championship.
Sophomore Greg Cuccinello's second hat trick of the season led the Tigers. He also had one assist. DeNapoli added two goals and two assists, while senior Matt Hughes scored his fourth and fifth goals in four games.
TJ Sanders's three goals led the Nittany Lions. Jack Forster and Shane Sturgis each posted two goals. Goalie Austin Kaut made six saves.
McCarty opened the game's scoring with his seventh goal in two games off a pass from DeNapoli at 11:10 in the first quarter. The Tigers took a 2-0 lead at 10:25 when Cuccinello beat PSU's Kaut middle right.
Penn State came back with a three-goal run starting at 9:28, getting scores from Forster, Kyle VanThof and Steven Bogert.
But DeNapoli cut the rally short with his 40th goal of the season at 2:05. Hughes caused a Penn State turnover, picked up the ground ball and fed it to DeNapoli for the score. Hughes capped the quarter with his seventh goal of the year and, fourth in four games, with one second left, giving Towson a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Nittany Lions started the second quarter with another three-goal rally when Forster connected with Tom LaCrosse on a fast break at 13:53. Sanders scored at 11:11 and Gavin Ahern followed at 10:18 to give PSU a 6-4 lead.
Junior Andrew Hodgson notched a goal for Towson with 6:59 left in the half after the Tigers worked the ball around the back of the net to Cuccinello who fed Hodgson. He dodged a defender and beat Kaut high to low from 12 yards out. His goal inched Towson to within one, 6-5. With 4:28 left in the half, Justin Mabus scored to tie the game at 6-6.
After the teams went to halftime tied at 6-6, Cuccinello opened the third quarter with a bullet at 12:30 to put Towson up, 7-6, giving the Tigers a lead they would never relinquish. Just over eight minutes later, Hodgson scored to give the Tigers an 8-6 advantage they carried into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was a wild one as a total of seven goals were scored. Four of the goals came in the final four minutes..
Cuccinello recorded his final goal of the game at 13:19 from 13 yards out to give Towson a 9-6 advantage. But, the Nittany Lions came back and scored their first goal of the second half when Sanders scored his 41st goal of the season 45 seconds later. Hughes answered with his second of the game when freshman Dan Livingston cleared the ball and passed to a waiting Hughes right in front of the goal at 6:51. That gave Towson a 10-7 advantage.
The Tigers were penalized for a slash with 4:54 and Penn State capitalized just 24 seconds into the penalty when Sturgis scored to cut the lead to 10-8.
With 2:33 remaining, DeNapoli tallied his 41st goal of the year, an unassisted score to increase the Tigers' lead to 11-8. That gave Towson enough breathing room to withstand Penn State goals from Sturgis and Sanders, at 2:14 and 1:42 respectively.
With the win, the Tigers earned the CAA's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. They will find out their opponent during the NCAA selection show on Sunday, May 5 at 9:00 p.m. on ESPNU.
The Tigers will be making their 11th NCAA Tournament appearance at the Division I level,. Their last NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2007 when they dropped a first round game at Cornell.
College Men's Lacrosse: Towson 11, No. 9 Penn State 10
Towson (10-7) 4-2-2-3/11
Penn State (12-4) 3-3-0-4/10
GOALS: TOW – Cuccinello 3, DeNapoli 2, Hodgson 2, Hughes, 2, Mabus, McCarty; PSU – Sanders 3, Forster 2, Sturgis 2, Ahern, VanThof, Bogert. ASSISTS: TOW – DeNapoli 2, Cuccinello, Livingston, Mabus; PSU – Ahern 2, Manley 2, LaCrosse, Zittel. SAVES: TOW – Wascavage (12, 60:00, 10 GA); PSU – Kaut (6, 60:00,11 GA). SHOTS: TOW – 32; PSU – 35. GROUND BALLS: TOW – 21; PSU – 33. FACE-OFFS: TOW –5-24; PSU – 19-24. CLEARS: TOW – 22-24; PSU – 19-23. EMO: TOW – 0-2; PSU 2-2. ATT: 796.
