TOWSON, Md. – With both teams ranked in the top five in scoring defense in the country, it was a game that lived up to the hype. In the end No. 17 Ohio State finished a comeback to edge the No. 16 Towson men's lacrosse 7-6 at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium Tuesday night.
 
For a sixth-straight game, the Tigers (5-3) held their opponent to single digit goals, backed by 12 saves from redshirt junior Tyler White. His counterpart, Tom Carey, made 11 saves in the rematch of a 2013 NCAA Tournament first round game.
 
Defensively, Towson's fourth-ranked unit held Ohio State to just three goals in the first half, including one in the first quarter. The Tigers held the Buckeyes without a goal for nearly 14 minutes during the first and second quarters, but a four-goal run over the final nine and a half minutes doomed Towson. The Tigers' defensive squad held reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week Tyler Pfister without any points and four shots, three of which were on cage and met by White.
 
Towson's offense was led by a hat trick from sophomore attackman Joe Seider, who needed just five shots for his three goals. Spencer Parks and Ryan Drenner, also attackmen, scored once each while defensive middie Jack Adams notched his first career goal in transition. Drenner and Justin Mabus each added an assist.
 
Ohio State got a five-point, four-goal night from Carter Brown. Colin Chell was the only other Buckeye starter to score a goal while Jesse King had a game-high two assists. JT Blubaugh and Ryan Hunter scored goals off the bench while Turner Evans and Reegan Comeault tallied assists.
 
"Congrats to Ohio State. That's a good win for them. I feel like we kind of handed it to them for the most part. They did enough to earn it," said Towson head coach Shawn Nadelen. "…I feel like it was very much a tail of two halves for us; it wasn't so much anything Ohio State did to us. It was pretty much self-implosion in the second half."
 
The faceoff X was a tail of two halves. Towson's Alec Burckley went five of 10 in the first half, including four-for-five first quarter. Despite many fifty-fifty groundballs off the draw, the Buckeyes won five of the six faceoffs in the second half, all by Christopher May, who had a game-high six groundballs.
 
Towson, which finished a two-game home stand, served three penalties in the seventh meeting with Ohio State. After holding the Buckeye extra-man unit without a goal on its first chance, Ohio State scored on its next two man-up chances. Towson did not score a special teams goal.
 
Groundballs and shots were close throughout the non-conference game, with Ohio State picking up 29 grounders to Towson's 26. The Buckeyes held a one-shot advantage, 31-30 while the Tigers were led by eight from Greg Cuccinello.
 
Ohio State's defense, which came in ranked  fifth in scoring defense, held Towson to just one second half goal, which came at the 12:54 mark of the third quarter. The only team in the country to not surrender an extra-man goal, the Buckeyes continued that trend, not allowing a goal on either of the Tigers' man-up chances.
 
Towson jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the game on back-to-back goals from Seider. Ohio State cut the lead on Blubaugh's marker, but the Tigers got the next two goals as well for a 4-1 lead thanks to a tranisition goal from Adams and Spencer Parks to kick off the second quarter.
 
An evenly-scored second quarter, Ohio State cut the deficit in half again, 4-2, on Brown's first goal. Seider completed the hat trick with 5:49 to go in the half, followed 40 seconds later by Brown's second of the game, an extra-man chance, to end the first half scoring.
 
The Tigers struck first in the third quarter on Drenner's ninth of the year, but that would be the final Towson goal of the evening. Ohio State scored the next four markers to surpass the Tigers and take the 7-6 win. Brown scored the first two of the run, followed by Chell and Hunter, who was credited with the game-winning goal.
 
Towson hits the road for its next contest this Saturday as the Tigers head to Binghamton University. Opening faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, N.Y.