TOWSON, Md. – Playing one of the longest games in the Shawn Nadelen Era, the Towson UNiversity men's lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaking 16-15 triple-overtime decision Saturday afternoon, falling to University of Richmond at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium.

It was the Tigers' first triple-overtime game since early March 2015 at Navy.

Attackman Nick DeMaio finished with a career-best eight points, scoring six goals with the first two assists of his Towson career. It is the seventh time since 2012 the Tigers have had someone rack at least six goals and the first since Feb. 9, 2019 when Brendan Sunday managed the trick.

Towson (1-3) had another career day Luke Shilling, who finished with one goal and four helpers. James Avanzato tagged Richmond for five points with three goals and two assists. Towson finished with 11 assisted goals on the day. Matt Constantinides had his best showing of the season, winning 19 of 33 faceoff attempts as Shane Brennan made 14 saves.

Richmond (2-1) won its second-straight game over the Tigers, both of which have been one-goal contests. Lance Madonna finished with a team-best seven points with six goals and one assist. Mount St. Mary's transfer Luke Frankeny logged five points with four goals and one assist.

How it Happened

• Towson opened the scoring in a hurry as DeMaio potted his first goal of the day just 57 seconds into the tilt before Alex Reid stung the net for a 2-0 Towson lead with 10:16 left in the first.
• Richmond's Jake Saunders was charged with an illegal body check and charged with a two-minute, nonreleasable penalty. 
• Towson capitalized on that locked-in foul, scoring three times in that two minute stretch. Avanzato scored back-to-back one minute apart with Shilling on DeMaio on the back end of each goal. DeMail put the Tigers up 5-0 with just half the period gone with a third-straight power play goal.
• Madonna got the Spiders' first goal of the day with 5:58 to play to end Towson's 5-0 run to start the game.
• Over the final five minutes of the first period, the Tigers scored another four goals. DeMaio got back-to-back strikes with Kyle Berkeley assisting the first and Shilling helping onthe second. Reid got his second of the day with 3:43 to go. Just five seconds later, Constantinides and Avanzato connected as the former won the ensuing faceoff while the latter deposited the bal for a 9-1 lead after 15 minutes.
• Down by eight, Richmond responded with a four-goal burst to open the second stanza, getting two goals from Cooper Dainton while Frankeny and Madonna scored once each.
• Berkeley broke up the run with his eighth goal of the year, giving Shilling his third helper of the day. Richmond converted three more goals over the final 6:22 of the second to cut Towson's lead to 10-8.
• Opening the second half, Towson put the lead back out to three on DeMaio's fifth of the day with another Shilling assist.
• The Spiders scored back-to-back goals from Madonna to pull back within one of the Tigers' at 11-10. Andrew Milani made it another two-goal lead for Towson with 6:22 to play. 
• Frankeny made it a one-goal game again but Shilling logged his goal with 3:24 to go in the third as Towson assumed a 13-11 lead after 45 minutes of action.
• Opening the fourth, Richmond surged to a 14-13 lead behind three unanswered goals from Frankeny, Madonna and Will Tazewell's second of the day.
• Jonathan Bender posted his first goal of the day with 8:43 to go in the fourth to deadlock action 14-14. Frankeny scored a go-ahead goal for the Spiders with 7:26 with Madonna's assist.
• Neither team scored for the next 7:25.
• Trailing by one with just three seconds on the clock, Nadelen called timeout with the ball in the alley directly opposite Towson's bench. Out of the break, Berkeley threw a low pass over to DeMaio, who took a low-to-high quasi-slap shot to tie the game 15-15 as time expired.
• Both teams traded chances across all three overtime periods.
• After Richmond won the opening overtime faceoff, Towson's Koby Smith forced a turnover. DeMaio took a shot at the other end but was thwarted by Richmond's netminder, Devin Craven.
• A minute later, Brennan made a stop for the Tigers to extend free lacrosse. Neither team got a shot on goal in the final 90 seconds of the first overtime.
• Forty-three seconds into the second overtime, Brennan made a save but turned the ball over while Richmond drew a penalty. Towson killed off the penalty followed by three-straight DeMaio shots  that could not find the cage. At the buzzer, Brennan made a last-second save on a deep heave from Richmond's Will Tazewell.
• The Tigers won the third-overtime faceoff with Berkeley and Shilling both getting chances. Shilling was stopped on the doorstep by Craven.
• Richmond's next offensive trip ended in a hit post that put the ball out of bounds. Towson's defensive midfielder Jordan Hayes backed up the shot and earned the ball for the Tigers. On Towson's next chance, Ryan Swain had a solid inside look at the goal, but was stopped one last time by Craven.
• Ryan Dunn worked through the center of Towson's defense with 16.2 seconds left to score the overtime game winner for Richmond.

Behind the Numbers

• DeMaio posted a career-best eight points with his sock trick and two assists. It is the sixth time in the Shawn Nadelen Era (2012) a Towson player has at least six goals. DeMaio is the first since Brendan Sunday tagged No. 7 Johns Hopkins for half a dozen on Feb. 9, 2019.
• DeMaio's eight points mark the fifth time since 2012 a Tiger has tucked away eight points and he becomes the first to do so since Sunday hit Delaware for eight points in the semifinals of the 2019 CAA Tournament.
• Shilling had a career-day as well, scoring four assists. It marks the 12th time a Towson player has notched four assists in the Nadelen Era.
• In addition to his first career assist, Constantinides won a career-best 19 faceoffs, doing so on 33 tries. It is the most faceoffs won by a Tiger in a game in the last two and a half seasons.
• Towson ripped off 57 total shots, tying the aforementioned CAA semifinal game for the most in the Shawn Nadelen Era.
• The Tigers had 11 assisted goals on Saturday, tied for the second-most assists in a game since 2012. The Tigers' combined 26 points are tied for the third-most in the Nadelen Era.
• Brennan made 14 saves in his 71 minutes and 44 seconds of work. Craven made 20 saves at the other end in the win.
• Saturday's game was the Tigers first triple-overtime since March 3, 2015, an 8-7 loss at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in the freezing rain. 
• Towson remains 25-17 in one-goal games under head coach Shawn Nadelen, but slips to 7-7 in overtime (or longer) games.

Up Next for Towson

• It's another short week for the Tigers as Towson prepares for a quick trip down to Cold Spring Lane on Wednesday.
• Towson takes on No. 20/No. 19 Loyola Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. at the Ridley Athletic Complex.