Towson's Seventh Straight Win Sets Stage for CAA Tournament

NEWARK, Del. — Towson and Delaware put on a show Friday night worthy of an encore. The old Coastal Athletic Association rivals might just offer one up in another eight days.

The visiting Tigers claimed the top seed in the conference tournament with an 11-10 victory before 1,813 at Delaware Stadium, winning a fittingly feisty game for their seventh consecutive victory.

“It’s always chippy between us, but we knew what we had to do and we got it done,” Towson goalie Luke Downs said.

Bode Maurer had the game-winning goal with 1:31 to go for the Tigers (11-3, 7-0), who got three goals and two assists from Joaquin Villagomez. Nick DeMaio (pictured above) added three goals and an assist for Towson, which will play host to either Drexel or Stony Brook on Thursday in the CAA semifinals.

Mike Robinson scored four goals — the last the 181st of his career, passing former teammate Tye Kurtz for the most in school history — for the Blue Hens (8-4, 6-1), who will be the No. 2 seed. Delaware will meet Fairfield in Thursday’s second semifinal at Towson.

Delaware announced last year it was leaving the CAA in the summer of 2025 to become a member of Conference USA, a move fueled by the school’s Football Bowl Subdivision ambitions. That’s all well and good for most sports, but it leaves the Blue Hens without a firm long-term men's lacrosse home for now. They’re also ineligible to play host to the CAA tournament according to league rules.

That only slightly reduced the stakes Friday as Towson made the 58-mile jaunt across the state line to complete their first perfect conference regular season since 2004. And the Tigers did it with a tight defense that forced 11 of Delaware’s 18 turnovers. It also came just six days after Towson held Monmouth to two goals and benefitted from 27 Hawk giveaways.

“They’re supporting each other and that’s what we’re built on, team defense,” Towson coach Shawn Nadelen said. “They’re recognizing our game plan. A few times we broke down and didn’t quite execute as well as we wanted to. It doesn’t matter if it’s Colby Barsz, our No. 1 defender, or a Ryder Mattingly, who’s our fourth d-middie. We’re going to support anybody when they need it.”

About the only time Towson’s defense looked wobbly was late in the first half, when Delaware briefly stretched its lead out. Tyler Owings’ man-up goal with 2:02 left made it 5-3, and Robinson scored coming out of a timeout with 2.1 seconds remaining before the break.

But Delaware then went silent, scoring just once in the next 18:33 as Towson methodically got back into it.

“It’s happened before, and it sucks when it happens before halftime,” said Downs, who made 14 saves. “But we knew what we had to do coming out of half and we came out strong.”

Towson tied it on Chop Gallagher’s goal with 5:40 left in the third, capping a possession that was extended by midfielder Josh Webber’s nifty bit of agility to secure a ground ball near the corner created by the sideline and midfield. Villagomez gave the Tigers their first lead less than a minute later.

Nonetheless, it was never a game that felt destined to become a runaway. Not with the ferocious and physical play in the middle of the field, hallmarks of a pair of programs led by detail-oriented coaches. And not as long as Robinson was a potential headache.

That he was, slinging in his record-breaker from 13 yards out with 7:21 to put Delaware up 10-9, its only lead of the fourth quarter.

“He can sting you from the outside,” Nadelen said. “He can hurt you from the inside. He’s good at freeing other people up off the two-man game where the seal’s inside. He’s good with the ball in his stick to be able to dodge. If he’s got it, we recognize we really have to press his hands and make him work to get a shot off and contest it. If he’s dodging in a dangerous spot, supporting that and being aware off-ball — out of the one timeout we didn’t do that, and he made us pay. But he changes his shot up, too, low-to-high and then the high bouncer. It’s impressive.”

So is Towson, which got late goals from Alex Roussel and Maurer to reclaim the lead and a Downs save on John McCurry with 46 seconds left to help seal the victory. And the Tigers have done their part so far to re-establish part of the program’s heritage under Nadelen, who led Towson to five NCAA tournament appearances and one Memorial Day weekend trip from 2013-19.

Towson struggled in the COVID era, a string of four consecutive losing seasons as Delaware won five out of six meetings in that span to rise to the top of the CAA.

Friday doesn’t guarantee anything for the Tigers should the teams meet again next weekend, and Nadelen was quick to point that out. But this defeat of the Blue Hens provided a tangible reward for Towson, a team that might not be satisfied yet but is still worthy of recognition for its bounce-back season.

“These guys have done a good job coming to work every day, practice, film, weight room,” Nadelen said. “They’ve just been a serious, good-chemistry group that is excited about playing together.”