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Tigers Make First Out-of-state Trip
By Simon Habtemariam
The Towson Tigers are going to play outside the state of Maryland for the first time this year.
Opening the college football season with four home games, an early bye and a short road trip to College Park to face the Terrapins, Towson has not traveled outside of a 50-mile radius. The No. 17 Tigers (4-1, 2-0 Colonial Athletic Association) will visit the No. 18 Old Dominion Monarchs (5-1, 2-1 CAA) Saturday.
Towson is coming off a win with a nail-biting finish, 31-28 against No. 14 Richmond. Sophomore place kicker D.J. Soven hit a 27-yard field goal during the final seconds of the game.
"It may sound trite, but the difference in that game was that we had the ball last," Towson coach Rob Ambrose said. "When you have a game with two efficient offenses, sometimes it comes to that."
In a game between two of the best scoring offenses in the Colonial Athletic Association, Towson and Richmond's battle to the last second featured two of the best individual performances during the weekend. Spiders' quarterback Aaron Corp, a transfer from USC, completed 31 for 34 passes to set an NCAA FCS record of accuracy and win the honors of CAA Offensive Player of the week.
On the Towson sideline, freshman Terrance West took over the conference scoring crown with a four-touchdown performance along with a career-high 128 yards rushing. The freshman was honored as CAA Rookie of the Week for the second time and even garnered national attention by The Sports Network as the NCAA FCS Freshman of the Week.
When it came down to it, Ambrose and his staff were watching the clock during the fourth quarter to make sure they would be able to manage a win at the end. Confident his team would score, something in the back of the Towson coach's mind was feeding him crazy thoughts.
"With about 3.5 minutes left, I was thinking about telling my brother [quarterback coach Jared Ambrose] that we're going to flip over the defense and let them score." Ambrose said. "I didn't tell [defense coordinator] Matt Hachmann to let them score. I knew we were going to score. We just needed the ball."
Against the Spiders, Towson's offense, for the first time in 2011, failed to outgain its opponents. Richmond's offense had no problem moving on the Towson defense on any of their drives. The Spiders never punted on the night and racked up 459 yards on the Tigers.
"I'm not going to say I was annoyed to be in this position," Ambrose said after the game. "It's not how you start. It's how you finish."
Against the Monarchs, Towson will face the second-highest scoring offense in the CAA. During their inaugural season in the conference, Old Dominion is averaging 37 points and 408.8 yards per game. Senior quarterback Thomas DeMarco leads a balanced Monarch offense with 1,034 yards passing and 129 yards on the ground.
The Tigers defense, which has allowed the fewest points in the conference, has developed a tight red-zone defense. After allowing several multiple-play offensive drives, the Tigers have relied on a plus-three turnover ratio and stout red-zone defense to keep them in games.
But one of the Tigers' best strategies has been using a balanced rushing offense to manage games and consume the clock. During four games this year, the Tigers have produced 200 rushing yards. While Towson ranks second in the CAA with more than 225 rushing yards per game, only West ranks among the top 10 rushing leaders in the CAA. The freshman tailback leads the conference with nine touchdowns.
The Tigers will be facing Old Dominion for the first time. Old Dominion is a third-year football program that is playing its first season in the CAA.
Simon Habtemariam will be covering the Tigers for the 2011 Season. Follow Simon on Twitter @Simon_HWT and online at http://simonhabtemariam.com for live score updates, recaps and more from the gridiron.
Posted Oct. 13, 2011 |
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