The Towson men's lacrosse team will try to do something this Saturday that it has never done before: beat Johns Hopkins in back-to-back years. The Tigers beat the No. 5 Blue Jays last year at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium by a score of 7-5. That was an early season shocker for lacrosse fans around the country.

Things are a lot different this season. When the two teams hit Homewood Field at 2 p.m. on Saturday, the Tigers will be the favorites. Towson comes into the game as the No. 5 team in the country in the Cascade/Maverik Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. The Blue Jays are 14^th in the same poll. It will be interesting to see how the Tigers react to that.

This past Saturday, one had the feeling that the only thing that could hurt Towson against UMBC would have been overconfidence. The Tigers were coming off a big win against No. 5 Loyola, and then had the Hopkins games to look forward to. It was the perfect trap game. Instead, the Tigers came out and took it right to the Retrievers. Towson led 9-0 at halftime, and built the lead to 12-0 before finally winning 14-6. The most impressive thing, was that of those nine first half goals, eight different Tigers scored them.

So what do the Tigers have to do to beat the Blue Jays? First they have to try and contain the two studs on the Blue Jays offensive side, Ryan Brown and Shack Stanwick. Stanwick had three goals and three assists against Princeton last week. The Tigers need to have a good day at the face off circle. The Tigers are winning about 59 percent of their faceoffs so far this season.

One thing that the Tigers have done well in every game so far this year is play solid defense. Think about this: Tyler White, the Tigers goalie, is third in the country in save percentage at .64.3 percent. But as a team, the Tigers as a team 54^th out of the 68 Division I teams (that qualify) in saves per game. What that means is that the Tiger defense isn't allowing their opponents to get good shots. It also shows how important those face offs are, because it means the Tigers are dominating time of possession.

One thing is for sure, Homewood Field is the place to be this Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Towson men's basketball team did not get the outcome they wanted this past weekend in the final CAA Tournament downtown at Royal Farms Arena. The Tigers fell to Northeastern in the quarterfinals 71-60. The Tigers could just never get their offense going in the second half against the Huskies, and Northeastern got the ball in the hoop at a high percentage in the second half.

The season is most likely not over for this team though, the Tigers expect to get invited into the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), College Insider.com Tournament (CIT) or the Vegas 16. That announcement will come late Sunday after the NCAA and NIT fields are announced. Stay tuned here at TowsonTigers.com for details against whom and when the Tigers will continue their 2015-16 season. Regardless, another 20 win season is nothing to sneeze at. There is no question this program is trending in the right direction.

Hunter Lochte and I will have the lacrosse call on TowsonTigers.com this Saturday from Homewood Field. We will hit the airwaves at 1:45 p.m. I will also have the call for you next Tuesday night when the Tigers will travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on the No. 20 Buckeyes of Ohio State.

Until next week, Go Tigers!!!