Dragons Fall to Towson in CAA Semis

Thursday, April 30

Fairfield, Conn.

4:00 p.m.

Drexel University

7-8

CAA Semifinals vs. Towson

10-5

TOWSON

Drexel

4/30/2015 5:35:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

Box Score

Fairfield, Conn - Towson scored three straight goals in the third period to break a 6-6 tie and went on to defeat Drexel in the Colonial Athletic Association Semifinals at Rafferty Stadium. The Tigers will advance to play either UMass on Saturday in the title game.

Cole Shafer scored four times to lead Drexel as the Dragons finished their season with a 7-8 record. Ryan Belka had a goal and two assists in his final game in a Drexel uniform. Belka eneded his career 10th all-time at Drexel with 98 goals. He is tied for ninth on the school's all-time assist list with 66 and his 164 points are ninth all-time at the school.

Drexel got on the board first when Shafer ran an isolation play and fired a shot low into the Tiger net. That would be the only goal for quite some time. Freshman Michael Kay gave the Dragons a two-goal lead when his lefty shot from 10 yards away on the wing went in the far upper corner. The lead wouldn't last for long as the Tigers scored three times in the last 1:42 of the first quarter. Ben McCarty started the run with his fourth goal against Drexel this season with 1:42 to play. Eleven seconds later Pat Conroy scored an unassisted goal and then with a flag down and only 1.5 seconds remaining in the first, Max Siskind scored his first of the day putting the Tigers ahead 3-2. On the ensuing man-up, Towson's Joe Seider gave the Tigers a two-goal lead for the first time.

Drexel answered the Towson run with three goals of its own. Ryan Belka was involved in all three as he scored the first and then set up two goals by Shafer. Shafer's third of the game, which gave Drexel a 5-4 lead, was his 12^th career goal in the CAA Championships. That broke the school record, previously held by NLL standout Robert Church. Towson closed the half with a pair of goals to take a 6-5 lead at the break.

Shafer tied the game 6-6 at the 7:02 mark in the third quarter but Towson's Justin Mabus tallied the go-ahead goal with five seconds left in the frame. The Tigers pushed out to a three-goal lead at the 10:21 mark in the fourth quarter on a goal by Max Siskind. The Dragons answered 12 seconds later on a strike by Robert Frazee after Nick Saputo won the face-off. The Tigers were able to keep the Dragons off the board to advance to the title game against UMass.

Ryan Drenner had a five-point day for the Tigers, tallying four assists and a goal, while four other Tigers had multi-goal efforts. Towson's Tyler White, the 2015 CAA Defensive Player of the Year, had eight saves, including four in the third quarter, while Jimmy Joe Granito had nine saves for Drexel.