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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPMay 27, 2017Ryan DrennerShawn NadelenJoe SeiderBoston, Massachusetts Ohio State - 11, Towson - 10 THE MODERATOR: Coach your opening thoughts on the game today? COACH NADELEN: Congratulations to Ohio State for earning a hard-fought win today against our squad. I've got nothing but love and pride and admiration for our program as a whole, but especially this team this year, not only for making it to the Final Four, but for how they did that and how we were able to get the team to this point through a lot of adversity throughout the season. Today we came out, we had some success early, but credit to Ohio State for getting back in the game and sealing it at the end of the game. I'm frustrated for our guys, because I know how bad they wanted it. I'm extremely proud of this team. Q. Ryan or Joe, could you talk about that last offensive possession, what you guys were trying to accomplish there to tie the game? RYAN DRENNER: Yeah, it's pretty chaotic in the moment. We were just trying to do what we've been doing all season long, getting good looks. Trying to force the defense to extend out and hopefully make a mistake. But, yeah, we're just trying to do the best we could to put in that last goal. But, like I said, it's pretty chaotic in the last few minutes. Q. Joe, you guys absolutely controlled the ground balls and shots in the first half, and then everything flipped in the second half. Did they have a defensive adjustment that messed with you guys? Did the mojo just disappear, for lack of a better phrase? What happened in that second half for the offensive unit? JOE SEIDER: I think that they played better overall defensively. I think they pressured out a little bit more on our shorties, so that made it tough to get middies to dodge for us. They started on offense, so it was a little slower offensively than in the first half. I think overall they just played a more sound defense than they did in the first half, and you've got to give credit to them for playing better. Q. Ryan, it seemed like a big part of the game plan might be trying to get Randall to switch off of you and attack some of the other guys. What was the game plan and how did that figure out for you? RYAN DRENNER: Yeah, we knew Randall was a great player. But that's just some of the plays we've done all season long. We were just continuing to do our thing. Coach Gilardi has a great game plan, and he gives me the freedom to attack whenever I can. So he just tries to set us up with plays where I can be aggressive, and the offense will rotate around it. Q. This is for both of you, Ryan and Joe. This class I know has meant a lot to Coach and to Towson University. If you can just talk a little bit about your journey with where the program was when you started and how you feel that you guys have left it. JOE SEIDER: Yeah, so I think when we first came here, Coach Nads -- I think it was your second year as a coach? Second? COACH NADELEN: Third. JOE SEIDER: Third year. And we were the first class that he fully recruited. So it was definitely a close beyond that we had with our class and the coaching staff. We started off hot. They had a solid program that won the NCAA championship the year before. So we knew we had a really good foundation. I think the brotherhood that I had with my class members is nothing I've experienced before. It's a real brotherhood and nothing like I've experienced before. So I think that's the thing that I'll look back on most on this journey is just how close I've become with these guys, these 11 guys in my class, and something special that we can take away. RYAN DRENNER: Yeah, I think he said it perfectly. The brotherhood that we have within our class and amongst the team is just unmatched. We came in with a steady foundation that Coach Nadelen had built, and there is a lot of credit that our class deserves to give to the classes above us who brought us in and kind of showed us the way of how Towson Lacrosse was played. We really bought into that, and everyone in our class is very proud to be a Towson Tiger. Q. Joe, I think you had a good look with about 15 seconds to go in the game. Can you take us through that situation and what you saw on the play? JOE SEIDER: I get that look all the time because Ryan is the best player I've ever played with. He gets all over the field just by him dodging. So I knew with a couple of dodges he was going to take that I was going to get my hands free. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the shot he pitched me, but that's what we wanted. That's what we were looking for, and he delivered it to me. So it was a great opportunity we had in the last couple seconds, for sure. Q. Ryan and Joe were talking about their time and what it's meant for them to play at Towson. What is going through your mind right now after this season and this game? COACH NADELEN: Too much. Too much is going through my mind. All the way back to recruiting these guys. Just the adversity that these guys have faced, not just the senior class but this team. Joe Seider, Mike Lynch coming back from surgeries over the summer, they really didn't get fully healthy until -- I say fully healthy, but they weren't 100% during the season. They didn't start feeling okay until midway through the season. Jack Adams, you know, came down as a Third Team All-American last year and tweaks his hamstring early in the season. He actually has to miss a couple of games. Plays with basically a big hammy apparatus strapped to his leg every game. Brian Bolewicki wears a boot for three weeks. Step on the field for game day first time for live action and gives us everything that he has. Guys with concussions. We lost a starting defenseman today to a head injury. They just continue to push forward. So these guys really showed me their fight, their willingness to just, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the adversity, they're going to push through. This senior class definitely is a special one in our hearts as a staff. Not only for them being the first class that started from start to finish recruiting-wise, but what they've come in and been able to do with the program and help it move forward and continue to build off what the groups before them established and continue to make it better, to leave it better. Hopefully the underclassmen were paying attention a lot and will continue to work throughout the season from start to finish and move the program forward each year. Q. Last week these guys got off to a 6-0 start but got outscored the rest of the way, 7-4, and today outscored Ohio State 7-3 in the first half, and got outscored 8-3. What was your halftime message (indiscernible) that a slow finish could happen again? COACH NADELEN: We knew Ohio State was going to come out aggressive in that second half, just like they normally do. We wanted to continue to be aggressive from our part. I think what really hampered us was the way the face-offs went, and we had to play a lot of defense. They were able to take advantage of some of those match-ups that we typically have advantages on or at least do a good job in. We just weren't making as many stops as we normally do. I've got to give credit to Ohio State. I think we got pretty good defensive personnel, and they challenged us. Got their hands free a couple times. The early ones in the third quarter were tough, because it was unsettled, a transition, an extra man, those kinds of plays. Then you get the one where we're one man up. We had to play. Times expired and we got to mix it up, basically, midfield comes in and scores. It's like those things are frustrating. To be in the right spot and finish off those plays. We allowed them to make some of those little plays, and then they made enough six on six to earn the win. Q. On the very last sequence, would you like to have seen Tyler turn the corner on that instead of forcing the pass to the crease? I know he's not accustomed to being in that position a lot, having been the decision maker in the very end. COACH NADELEN: He was in a tough spot. There were people coming to him and trying to make a decent play coming down the crease. Yeah, he had a short time. The turn around, left-handed, being in a spot he's not too familiar with. I don't know if we got a better result, so I don't question his decision. Q. You kind of touched on it there. What about the Ohio State offensive players? What made them so dangerous in the second half and so tough out there? COACH NADELEN: They had the ball more. A good offensive team has the ball more and they're that much more dangerous. They finished it off with it being in transition on several of those six on six. We did do a good job, I felt, making sure we were on their hands a couple times. In the man up, we were a little slow in the rotate when Leclaire stuck that one in the fourth quarter. We didn't get a quick enough rotation where they didn't have to screen too much. And Fannell is a tough match-up for a lot of people. We did a good job with that today. Pearson gets that one just out of the reach, and steps away, and Jack Adams couldn't quite get a hand on it, and continue in a great spot off of Hoy's shin, basically, far side. They made plays when they needed to and put the ball in the net. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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