Tigers Show Life, Not Enough to Beat Tribe
The Towson Tigers fell this past Saturday to the William and Mary Tribe. This game also happened to be Homecoming at Towson. They were coming off a bye week and a loss the previous week to Elon. The homecoming crowd was not enough to help power the Tiger to victory. My days have gotten mixed up but we are now back on track as I could have sworn the game was last week. The Tigers did show some life but it was not enough to run with the Tribe. Towson did score more points than they had the previous two games combined. The Tigers have now dropped their 5th straight and 3rd to a ranked opponent. The offense had their most efficient game lately, as they put up 397 yards of total offense.
Pigrome had a better game and despite the loss it can be looked at as a positive. He threw for 179 yards and 2 touchdowns, however he did throw an INT and was sacked 3 times. Pigrome has 7 touchdowns and 4 INTs on the year, not bad, but not enough to win consistently. It is encouraging to see Pigrome have a decent game after he has struggled at times. His go-to man through the air was D’Kendall James, who had 5 catches for 77 yards and a score. Darian Street also got in on the action and hauled in 3 catches for 27 yards and a score.
The rushing attack had one of its better days on the ground. Pigrome did a huge amount of the work, carrying the ball 22 times for 112 yards and a score. He got more touches than anyone else and the next closest was Joachim Bangda with 11 carries for 57 yards. The Tigers picked up an impressive 218 yards on the ground and helped pace the offense all day. Pigrome really put everything out there and despite the loss I can’t help but salute the guy.
Defensively, the Tigers yielded 44 points and 481 yards of total offense. They did get 4 tackles for losses from 4 different guys, but they did not force any turnovers. Without the turnoverds the defense could not give the offense any extra possessions. These extra possessions could have yielded some points to help the Tigers chip away at the lead.
The Tribe pretty much did whatever they wanted on offense and made it tough on the defense all day. Darius Wilson threw for 164 yards on 8 completions and 2 scores and had 17 yards rushing on 4 carries. Wilson’s longest completion of the day went for 83 yards and a score on 1 play which extended the Tribe’s lead by 34. Andrew Piercy, the Punter/Kicker threw a 17 yard touchdown pass in the 2nd quarter. On the ground is where the Tribe did some serious damage as they racked up 300 yards and 2 scores, thanks to Donavyn Lester who had both rushing touchdowns. Malachi Imoh paced the Tribe with 94 yards on 8 carries, Bronson Yonder had 81 yards on 11 carries and Hollis Mathis had 65 yards on 6 carries. Through the air, the Tribe only had 181 yards combined, but had 3 touchdowns to 3 different players: Lachlan Pitts, Caylin Newton and Ethan Chang.
Defensively for the Tribe, they had a big day keeping the Tigers offense at bay. They had 3 sacks, forced 4 fumbles and recovered one, and got an INT from Marcus Barnes. Tye Freeland played a big role for their defense as he has 11 total tackles, a TFL and forced 3 fumbles.
The Tigers season is slipping away, and with not many games left there is still some time to salvage the rest of the season. The Tigers head off to West Long Branch, New Jersey for a matchup with Monmouth University.
This is Monmouth’s first year in the CAA and has not played Towson since 2002. The Tigers are 7-1 all time against them and will look to add another W to that record. The Hawks come into this game at 4-4 and 2-3 in conference play, which is not bad for their first year in a new conference. After an 0-2 start, the Hawks rattled off 4 wins in a row, but have dropped their last two games. Offensively, Tony Muskett leads the Hawks offense with 17 touchdowns to 8 INT’s and an impressive 1997 yards passing. Owen Wright leads the team with 14 rushing touchdowns and Jaden Shirden leads them in rushing yards with 1,154. Dymere Miller and Assanti Kearney are their deep threats and both have 4 touchdowns a piece. Defensively, the Hawks have forced 9 INT’s- 3 of which by Davis Miller and have 11 pass breakups by Mike Reid. Pat Hayden is their sack guy with 3 sacks on the year. He will look to hit Pigrome and make it a long day for him.
It’s a tall task but if the Tigers are gonna turn their season around then it has to start here. Kickoff time is set for 1pm. GO TIGERS.
