FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Calm, cool and collected, senior midfielder Justin Mabus was not ready to end his career, collecting a groundball on the doorstep of the Massachusetts goal and going behind the back and low to give the Towson men's lacrosse team the 2015 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Men's Lacrosse Championship, the program's fifth since the league began sponsoring the sport in 2002.
 
The third-seeded Tigers (11-5) claimed the CAA's automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament with the 9-8 win over Massachusetts, the tournaments fourth-seeded team. Towson won its 11^th game of the season, the most in the Shawn Nadelen Era (2012) and most since the 2005 Tigers went 11-5.

Mabus was named to the All-Tournament, as were defenseman JoJo Ostrander, midfielder Greg Cuccinello, attackman Ryan Drenner and attackman Joe Seider, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Mabus potted the game-winning goal with just under two minutes left and the 30-second shot clock running. The Yorktown Heights, N.Y. native finished with two goals. Seider notched a hat trick while Greg Cuccinello ended a long scoring drought with a pair of goals. Max Siskind and Mike Lynch notched one goal apiece. Drenner, Mabus and Tyler Konen notched one helper each.

"UMass is a terrific team and they showed that today and wouldn't go away quietly," Nadelen said following his second CAA championship. "Looking at the stats coming into this game, they've been a plus (in goals) big time in the second half. We knew we had to come out with more energy and more focus and we didn't do that and they chipped away, chipped away, got up and I was proud of our guys to stay poised and focused. We had a little bit of an issue in the third quarter but rebounded and just stayed in the fight until the end."
 
UMass (5-10) got a pair of goals from Gianni Bianchin, including one that tied the contest 8-8 with 3:36 left in the fourth quarter, and Brendan Hegarty and Dan Muller. Andrew Sokol and Grant Whiteway tallied one goal apiece. Nick Mariano had two helpers, while Bianchin and Sokol notched one helper apiece.
 
Towson, which won its second CAA tournament as the third seed since 2013, dominated the groundball game, picking up 27 while Massachusetts had 12. No groundball was bigger in the game than Mabus' on the UMass crease.
 
The Tigers went 14-of-20 at the faceoff X, with Alec Buckley taking all 20 draws for the Tigers. The sophomore specialist went three-for-three in the second quarter and six-of-seven in the third.
 
Towson, which improved to 13-6 all-time in the CAA tournament, failed to clear just once on its 11 attempts. Tigers, who lead the country in fewest turnovers per game, had just six miscues.
 
Improving to 8-1 this season when scoring first, Towson got on the board just over five minutes into its eighth CAA championship game when Seider whistled one past the ear hole of Zach Oliveri, who finished with 14 saves. Seider's goal was his 30^th of the year, giving Towson its first 30-goal scorer since the 2013 campaign. The Tigers opened with three goals wish Siskind and Mabus following Seider. Massachusetts got on the board with 5:55 left in the first, scoring again early in the second to make it a 3-2 game.
 
But the Tigers tucked away back-to-back goals to finish the second quarter from Seider and Cuccinello, who tallied his first goal since the March 3 contest at Navy. Towson took a 5-2 advantage into the break.
 
Down but not out, the Minutemen came out firing in the third quarter, reeling off four unanswered goals to take a 6-5 lead. Lynch snapped the skid with his sixth of the year, sparking another three-goal Tiger run, backed by Cuccinello's second and Seider's third.
 
The Minutemen hung around to tie the game at 8-8 on back-to-back goals from Mullin and Bianchin, who took advantage of a two-man advantage for UMass.
 
In the end, it was Mabus who played the part of the hero, collecting one final groundball and going behind-the-back to beat Oliveri to the bottom left post. Massachusetts won the ensuing facebook, but Tyler White, who made seven saves, and his second-ranked scoring defense fought off the UMass efforts to seal the win.







- TowsonTigers.com -