PHILADELPHIA – After a slow first half and trailing 7-2 at the break, the No. 17 Towson men's lacrosse team rallied to take an 8-7 lead with 11:45 left in the third quarter at Drexel University's Vidas Field on Saturday. The final stanza of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game featured two ties and two lead changes before the host Dragons came out on top 11-10.
 
The result sets up a rematch between the Tigers and Dragons in the CAA Semifinals, hosted by Fairfield University on Thursday. Towson will be the three seed in the league tournament while the Dragons claimed the two seed. Fairfield and Massachusetts will be the top seed and fourth seed, respectively. Towson and the Dragons will clash once again at 4 p.m. at Rafferty Stadium, followed by the second semifinal between Fairfield and UMass at 7 p.m.
 
Senior midfielder Ben McCarty put the team on his back during a five-goal burst by the Tigers, scoring a natural hat trick with three straight. McCarty's goals were bookended by markers from Mike Lynch and Max Siskind. McCarty finished with a game-high four goals while Siskind had a hat trick as well, including an extra-man goal to put Towson up 8-7 with 11:45 left in regulation.
 
The Tigers, who out-shot Drexel 48-35, pulled within one goal of the Drexel lead on a Justin Mabus goal with 2:21 in regulation, helped along by one of Ryan Drenner's two assists.
 
Mabus, Lynch and Joe Seider all finished with one goal for the Tigers (9-5, 3-2 CAA). Spencer Parks notched one assist, as did Konen.
 
Drexel (7-7, 3-2 CAA) got 10 of its 11 goals from starters, including two hat tricks from attackmen Chris Frederick and Robert Frazee. The third attackman, Cole Shafer, and midfielder Ryan Belka had two goals apiece. Mason Pynn had two points on one goal and one assist while starting midfielder Michael Kay had the only other Drexel assist.
 
Towson got 11 saves from redshirt junior Tyler White, who made six of those stops in the second half. Drexel keeper Jimmy Joe Granito stopped 12 Tiger attempts and was helped by four posts hit by Towson shooters, including three in one possession.
 
The Tigers' comeback bid was helped by a two-of-four day on the extra man, with Siskind potting both man-up goals, with Konen and Drenner on the backend of the tallies.
 
After the Tigers went three-for-22 in faceoffs against Drexel in last season's CAA Semifinals, Towson won 15 of the game's 24 draws, helped along by a 14-of-23 day from Alec Burckley, along with seven groundballs. Longstick midfielder Pat Conroy won his only draw of the day.
 
Frazee scored the first two goals of the game before Seider notched his 26^th of the season on a dish from Parks. The Dragons went up 3-1 towards the end of the third quarter on Frederick's first. After hitting three pipes on the same possession, McCarty eventually buried a shot to make it a one-goal game with 12:22 left in the first half. Drexel reeled off four unanswered goals from four different sources, Frazee, Belka, Frederick and Shafer, taking a 7-2 advantage into the break.
 
Staring at a big halftime deficit, the Towson came out in the third quarter and ripped off four goals while keeping Drexel off the board. The Tigers pulled within one with 1:41 left in the third, McCarty's second in his natural hat trick. Lynch scored Towson's first of the second half just two minutes in.
 
The Tigers continued their run with two more at the start of the fourth, including McCarty's fourth of the day followed by Siskind's second extra-man goal. But the Dragons scored back-to-back goals for a 9-8 advantage. Siskind got his third of the windy afternoon to knot the action 9-9. Drexel scored another pair of goals to go up 11-9 with 4:10, followed by Mabus' to pull Towson within one of the lead.
 
- TowsonTigers.com -