Virginia attackmen Connor Shellenberger and Payton Cormier had a quiet 19 points.
Those statistics have come to be expected, and both delivered in No. 5 Virginia’s 19-15 win against host Towson on Saturday before a crowd of 1,265 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
The game was close for a half as the Cavaliers (5-1) held a one-goal edge, 10-9, but then came the third quarter. That’s when Cormier scored four goals in the final 12 minutes and Shellenberger collected two assists as Virginia went ahead, 16-10.
Shellenberger, a graduate student, finished with three assists and seven goals while Cormier, also a graduate student, had seven goals and two assists.
“I’m proud of our guys’ ability to get out there and compete against a really strong Virginia team,” Towson coach Shawn Nadelen said. “We are right there and we have a pretty good ideal of who we are and how successful we can be. This was a step in the right direction and now we recognize what we need to do.”
The tandem of Shellenberger and Comier are hard to defend because Virginia coach Lars Tiffany does a great job of moving those two around, as well as the rest of the offense. He’ll invert Shellenberger and have him quarterback the offense like a midfielder. He does the same with Cormier, which allows him to get mismatches against short-stick midfielders. It’s no contest, especially playing against a smaller Division I school like Towson (4-3).
“We game planned for them, for those situations, but we had a hard time stopping their momentum and lacrosse is a game of runs,” said Towson goalie Luke Downs, who played well and finished with 12 saves. “We actually did that in the third quarter but by then it was too late. We will get better from this.”
The Tigers entered having won four of their past five games, with the lone loss against Loyola Maryland in overtime. A win would have set the tone for the rest of the season, but the Tigers weren’t embarrassed by the Cavaliers, who hold a 17-3 advantage in the series including 14 straight wins. Towson was successful on 20 of 22 clears against a Virginia team noted for its 10-man ride. The Cavaliers and Tigers finished tied in shots with 44 each, Towson converted 2 of 2 extra-man opportunities and the Tigers won 19 of 36 faceoffs.
Towson got outscored 6-1 in the third quarter, but it scored the last five goals in the final 12 minutes of the game.
“We wanted to hold the ball and have long possessions,” Nadelen said. “During that run, we were just trying to calm down and get ourselves composed again. We came out fast because they are strong on the ball, so we wanted to create space and there was less pressure.”
Virginia looked like it might pull away with two straight goals in the second quarter from long-pole midfielder Ben Wayer with 10:28 left, but Towson answered with two goals in the next four minutes, one each from midfielder Mikey Weisshaar (Spalding) and attackman Joaquin Villagomez (Severna Park), to tie the game at 9 with 6:41 left. Cavaliers attackman Jack Boyden scored with 4:54 left as Virginia took a 10-9 lead into halftime.
Towson, though, played perhaps its best half of the season. The teams were nearly even in shots (24-23, Virginia) and faceoffs (11 for Virginia, 9 for Towson) and neither team could gain more than a two-goal advantage in the first two quarters.
The Tigers, relying on feeds from behind the goal, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game on goals by Weisshaar and attackman Bode Maurer. But Virginia answered with two straight, the second from Cornier, to tie the game at 2 midway through the first quarter.
Towson went ahead, 5-2, when midfielder Austin Ducommun picked up a ground ball outside the crease and dumped it in for a goal with about five minutes remaining, but the Cavaliers rallied again late in the quarter on several breakaways to tie the game at 5. Tigers midfielder Matt Constantinides scored with one second remaining in the quarter.
Weisshaar led Towson in scoring with five goals and attackman Nick DeMaio, a Maryland transfer, had six assists.
Towson at Drexel
Saturday, noon
Stream: flosports.tv