BALTIMORE – The Towson University men's lacrosse team fell in its season opener at No. 13/5 Johns Hopkins 13-5 on a brisk Tuesday night in Baltimore.
 
Towson (0-1) was led by a four-point performance by Mikey Weisshaar and trailed just two at the half, but Johns Hopkins (1-1) outscored Towson 7-1 in the second half to get the victory.
 
Key Stats:

• Mikey Weisshaar finished with two goals and two assists, having a hand in four of Towson's five goals, also adding two caused turnovers.  Chop Gallagher had a goal and an assist.
• In goal, Luke Downs notched 10 saves in his second career start, playing the full 60 minutes for 13 goals allowed.  Conor Spagnolli picked up two ground balls and a caused turnover on defense.
• On the faceoff-X, Matt Constantinides was 6-for-15 while Rocco Mareno went 3-for-7.
• For Johns Hopkins, three players had hat tricks, with each Jacob Angelus and Garrett Degnon having three goals and an assist.  Chayse Irelan had the victory in goal with seven saves and five goals allowed in 55:28 of play.

How It Happened:

• Hopkins scored on the opening possession off a shot straight away from Garrett Degnon.  Towson held on the next possession off a turnover, but committed a turnover itself the other way.  After the defense held against two shots, Towson went the other way after a shot clock violation.  Alex Roussel shook off a defender to free himself for the 10-yard rip and score, tying the game at 1-1.
• Hopkins quickly took back the lead, then Towson quickly equalized: Chop Gallagher dropped off a short pass to Mike Weisshaar for the laser shot inside the right post.  The score was 2-2 with 8:48 left in the first quarter.
• The home team took the lead back with under seven minutes in the first.  Towson's ride started to give Hopkins problems, with Weisshaar and Joe Meidling each causing turnovers before the home team could clear.  Hopkins got another to lead by two.  Towson nearly got a goal back in the closing seconds off a dive from Weisshaar, but the goal did not count.  Towson trailed 4-2 after one.
• Into the second, Weisshaar finally got his second goal, emerging from behind the cage and scoring on the run.  Towson's defense held off a Luke Downs save as Bode Maurer got denied by the crossbar, then the other way after a timeout, Hopkins scored back-to-back goals in less than a minute on catch and shoot to lead 6-3 with 7:41 left in the second. 
• Towson's defense held the fort the rest of the quarter, with Downs earning a couple of saves on shots from the wings.  Weisshaar found Nick DeMaio wide open on the left side for the rip and score to pull Towson within two.  Towson trailed 6-4 at the break.
• Downs picked up two quick saves in the opening minutes of the third, but Hopkins also had two saves on Towson attempts.  On a third chance for Hopkins, Scott Smith scored to get the home team's lead back to three.  Downs recovered and made his eighth save on the shot from the right side.  After a clear, connected passes got the ball to Gallagher for the short shot and score, making it 7-5 Johns Hopkins with 6:26 left in the third.
• After the media timeout, Hopkins got two quick goals in a span of 21 seconds to build its lead to four.  Towson got an offensive possession but could not score before a shot clock violation, where Hopkins scored the other way and led 10-5, the eventual end of third quarter score.
• Towson held off Hopkins after the Blue Jays were two men up off a Downs save, but after the Hopkins ride forced a turnover, the Blue Jays scored the next chance to go up six.
• Towson got looks on offense, but was denied of couple of chances by Chayse Ierlan.  JHU built up the lead with two more goals and won 13-5.  

Inside the Numbers:

• Mikey Weisshaar tied a career-high with four points, his fourth time having four points in a game.
• With six faceoff wins today, Matt Constantinides is now tied for sixth all-time in Towson history with 360 career faceoff victories.  Mitchell Rosensweig had 360 faceoff victories from 2006-09.

Next Game:

• Towson will have its home opener on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. at Johnny Unitas® Stadium vs. Mount St. Mary's.
• To purchase tickets or if you have any questions regarding tickets, visit https://am.ticketmaster.com/towson/ or call the Towson Athletics ticket office at 410-704-4501.

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