Towson's Stratton fueled by "fire"
Towson senior attackman Tim Stratton said he understood the reasoning behind the coaches’ decision to sit him in Tuesday night’s 14-11 loss to Navy.
But that doesn’t mean that he was happy about not starting. Stratton said that the demotion served to motivate him to score his first goal since last season in the Tigers’ 9-8 upset of No. 4 Stony Brook on Saturday.
“I definitely had a little more fire behind me just because I had never been benched before,” Stratton said. “But I just wanted to step in and do what I could to help our team get a win. That’s was the biggest thing, to contribute in any way.”
Stratton, who returned as the team leader in goals with 15 last spring, had registered just three assists in his first four starts. So he said he couldn’t really argue with the coaches’ decision.
“We were a couple games into the season, and I wasn’t producing, and you’ve got to switch things up and see what’s working, and give some other kids a shot,” Stratton said. “[Junior] Sean Maguire has been playing well in practice all year, and he deserves a shot. He had another great game today. Hopefully, what we’ve got going now works and we can keep it going.”
Stratton’s goal with 13 minutes, 19 seconds left in the second quarter was his first since since May 5, 2010 and snapped a six-game drought.
“It felt good to just finally get that whole first goal out of the way,” he said. “I didn’t think it was going to come after a while. But it’s a relief. Now I can just play.”
Comments
I am a parent of another player on this team. I can tell you Stratton demonstrated more leadership and professionalism watching him on the sidelines encouraging his temmates. If (and I hope he does) catch fire, this offense is going to be really special.
Coaches could learn something from him.
Posted by: towson fan | March 21, 2011 12:08 PM
Tim Stratton is a great lacrosse player but more importantly, he's a fine young man that makes me proud to be affiliated with the Towson Men's Lacrosse program. Great job to everyone on the team this past weekend and we look forward to another exciting game on Satuday at Delaware.
Posted by: Vincent Mezzanotte | March 21, 2011 4:05 PM