Miller’s late save helps Tigers survive
WASHINGTON — No men’s lacrosse defense is pleased to allow an individual to score six goals, but Towson could not have been happier that Georgetown’s Daniel Bucaro did not get No. 7.
Junior goalkeeper Josh Miller stopped Bucaro’s shot for his ninth and final save, and the No. 12 Tigers cleared the ball and ran out the final 70 seconds in regulation to preserve an 11-10 decision over the host Hoyas at Cooper Field on Saturday.
Bucaro scored four times in the first half and two more in the second on 14 shots. He was the obvious choice to take the final attempt when Georgetown called a timeout with possession with 1:27 left in the fourth quarter.
Bucaro ran off a pick behind Towson’s net and up the right alley, but defensemen Chad Patterson (Westminster) and Gray Bodden (Winters Mill) converged on Bucaro, who could not get much velocity or accuracy on the shot. Miller stopped the ball, gathered it and kicked off a clear that eventually landed in the stick of senior attackman Ryan Drenner to run off much of the remaining time and cement the victory.
“We’ll take that last one,” a relieved coach Shawn Nadelen said. “I don’t know if we wanted to give up whatever he got — six goals against us — but it’s the last one that matters the most. So we’ll take it.”
Said Bucaro: “We didn’t finish like we needed to. We didn’t get it done. That’s all I can say.”
Hoyas coach Kevin Warne, a former defensive coordinator at Maryland, said Bucaro could not get a clean attempt to send the contest into overtime.
“Their guy did a pretty good job of just being a little physical with him,” Warne said. “Kind of knocked him off balance a little bit so that I don’t think it was as smooth as Danny would have liked to get up the hash. They made a play and were able to knock him off his line and redirect the shot. It just didn’t have a lot on it.”
The Tigers improved to 2-0 for the second straight year. But the game should not have been as close as it was.
Towson scored the first two goals and raced to a 7-1 advantage with 13:39 left in the second quarter after sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder Zach Goodrich scored his second goal of the day. But the offense went dry for the next 9:09, and Georgetown scored four consecutive scores to draw to within 7-5 with 6:53 remaining in the half.
Drenner said the Hoyas threw off the Tigers by using a zone defense and forcing them to consider taking shots from the perimeter.
“It was the first time we had seen a zone out of them,” said Drenner, a Westminster graduate. “I think [offensive] coach [Anthony] Gilardi noticed one zone clip from all of their games so far. We prepared for a zone, but we weren’t expecting it from them. We just needed to settle down and work out of our zone offense.”
Towson ended the first half with three straight goals to enjoy a 10-5 lead. But after both sides traded goals within the first 8:02 of the third quarter, Georgetown outscored the Tigers 4-0 for the remainder of the game.
Towson committed 21 turnovers with six in the final quarter, including a pair of failed clears before Bucaro’s last shot.
Drenner paced the Tigers with six points on two goals and four assists, and senior attackman Joe Seider (Hereford) chipped in three goals and one assist. Towson 4 6 1 0 — Georgetown 1 4 2 3 — Goals: T—Seider 3, Drenner 2, Goodrich 2, Bolewicki, Mazza, Robertson, Woodall; G—Bucaro 6, Conley 2, Carraway, White. Assists: T—Drenner 4, Bolewicki, Seider; G—Conley 2, Berge, Clark. Saves: T—Miller 9; G—Marrocco 11.