Towson Set for Battle of Greater Baltimore after Losing to Monmouth
0-2 start for Towson as they shift focus to Saturday
Towson dropped their home opener this past Saturday to Monmouth. The offense found the end zone but struggled to keep the Hawks out of it. The Tigers got off to a fast start with a fumble recovery on defense on the first drive of the game. Monmouth quarterback Marquez McCray fumbled the ball and Makye Smith fell on it. The Tigers took all of 2 plays to find the end zone when Nathan Kent completed a pass to Da’Kendall James for 27 yards. The Tigers forced a turnover on downs their next defensive series and added a field goal from Keegan Vaughn to make it 10-0. The Tigers defense gave up a 66 yard touchdown run to Stone Ntoh on a 4&1 from the Hawks 34 yard line. The Hawks would later tack on 7 more with a run from Jaden Shirden to extend the lead to 14-10. The Teams traded touchdowns in the 3rd as Marquez McCray found Assanti Kearney for a 36 yard touchdown to give the Hawks a 21-10 lead. Meanwhile Devin Matthews found the endzone from 1 yard out to make it 21-17.
The Hawks dominated the 4th quarter as Marquez McCray threw another touchdown to Assanti Kearney to extend the lead to 28-17. The Tigers did not go away as Nathan Kent tossed another touchdown to Daniel Thompson to make it a 28-23 game. Tigers wide receiver Lukkas Londono threw an interception on late in the 3rd which was a big blow to cap off a 12 play drive. That would be as close as Towson got as Stone Ntoh scored 2 more rushing touchdowns in 4th to make the score 42-23. Towson had 1 more chance but Kent was picked off and the Tigers find themselves starting off the season at 0-2.
The Hawks dominated the ground game by out rushing Towson for 168 yards. Jaden Shireden rushed for 152 yards and a score and Aaron Ntoh had 3 of his own. The passing game was very close in terms of numbers and production as Assanti Kearney led the way for the Hawks. Da’Kendall James and Daniel Thompson had touchdowns as well and kept the Tigers in the game.
Defensively the Hawks got 2 sacks from Jake Brown, 1 from Remi Johnson and a half sack from Antonio Cloclough and Justin O’Bannon. Brown did force a fumble from Nathan Kent and the Hawks recovered it. He lead the team in total tackles. The Hawks got an interception from Dre Tucker in the 3rd and Davis Smith on Towson’s last drive of the game. For the Tigers the defense got 5 sacks: Gibbs, Makye Smith, Brockman Wallace and 2 from Ernie Smith. Xavier Terry led the Tiger defense in total tackles with 8.
The Battle for Greater Baltimore returns this weekend as the Tigers will aim to get their first win of the season. Morgan State will host the game this year and will try to snap a 5 game losing streak to Towson. The Tigers got the better of the Bears last year with a 29-21 win. The Bears come into this game with the better record as they got a win over Richmond in their season opener but fell to Akron by 3 on the road. The Bears have used 3 quarterbacks this year but of the 3 Duce Taylor and Dominique Anthony have had the biggest impact. The Tigers will need to be prepared for anything that the Bears do under center. The ground game has been dominated by JJ Davis who has 131 yards rushing on 31 attempts. Jabreil Johnson and Carson Beck, who is the other of the 3 quarterbacks have the only 2 rushing touchdowns for Morgan State. Treyveyon Pratt leads the team in receiving yards and touchdowns. He will look to get open early and often to make big plays.
Defensively for the Bears, Erick Hunter, Elijah Williams and Nana Asante both have 2 sacks each and will look make big plays in the backfield. Williams also leads the defense in total tackles. In the secondary Jordan Toles, a Baltimore native and graduate of St Frances, is off to a great start with 2 INT’s. Towson will need to get off to a fast start and play a clean game to have a chance to extend that winning streak to 6 games in the series. Kickoff time is set for 6 pm at Hughes Stadium in Baltimore. GO TIGERS!!
