SPECIALTY PROTECTION
WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE
Closing out yet another rain soaked weekend of lacrosse, the Virginia Cavaliers met the Towson Tigers early on St. Patrick’s Day. The match up was an extremely important game for both teams as neither one’s respective conference gets an AQ. After the loss to Maryland last week Towson was in dire need of a win as they have very few tournament caliber teams left on their schedule. What they got however was careless stick skills and a tough opposing defense backed up by a hot goalie. When the final horn blew, it was the Cavs on top 13-8 after holding Towson to only two goals in the second half, both of which came in the third.
Towson got the scoring started when middie Josh Tankersley dodged from out top scoring the opening goal unassisted on a hard righty shot. Virginia came storming right back however, as Conor Gill got one of his three assists on the day finding freshman Jared Little cutting down to the crease. Little left the Towson defense standing still as he put one past Tigers goalie John Hunt to tie it at one. Both teams traded goals back and forth for the entire first half with Towson playing catch up for most of the action.
With the cavs up 4-2 Brian Myers got the Tigers back in it with a great move off an attempted double by the tough Virginia defense. On a full speed dodge to the goal, Myers split the two opposing defensemen with an overhead swim move for an easy one on one with the goalie. Converted midfielder AJ Shannon closed out the first half scoring on a nice lefty bouncer off of a dodge from out top with two minutes left. The first half saw mediocre goalie play at both ends with neither keeper making many saves until Hunt made a one on one stop off a fast break started by cavs d-man Brett Hughes.
The second half started the same as the first with Towson coming out hot right off the opening whistle. Attackman Brad Reppert came around the back of the goal righty sticking his shot nearside past Tillman Johnson tying the game at seven. Virginia again came right back by taking advantage of a man up opportunity off a stupid push from the back. Shannon again found the back of the net making Towson pay for the cheap shot as the cavs defense continually frustrated the struggling tigers offense. Their standard run and gun style of play was entirely shut down by Virginia as Towson began habitually turning the ball over.
The game was again tied, this time at eight, until Virginia long stick middie Trey Whitty picked up a loose ball behind the goal. As second half goalie Reed Sothoron came out to pick up the same ball, Whitty was already a step ahead and dove from behind the goal with a one- armed reach around shot. The goal took the wind out of the Tigers as Virginia went on to a 5-0 run. Towson was having a terrible time passing and catching resulting in 24 turnovers and only two goals in the second half. Sloppy plays, turnovers, penalties and just an overall lack of discipline plagued the tigers in the second half as the cavs would go on to win 13-8.
