Hudson Arrup scores four goals as No. 15 Towson boys lacrosse rolls past Hereford, 12-5

It was senior night for 15 Towson boys lacrosse players, but it was sophomore Hudson Arrup who stole the spotlight with four goals and two assists in the Generals’ 12- 5 victory over Hereford.

The Generals scored the first three goals and Hereford bounced back to tie with three of its own before Towson scored seven straight goals and put the game away.

The win puts the Generals (9-0) in the driver’s seat for the Baltimore County championship game.

Towson senior Ansen Park had two goals and two assists and seniors Luke Richardson, Zach Hochrein and Connor Parks scored goals. Sophomore Max Kosmedes scored two goals and junior Alex Tyler added one.

Senior goalie Alex Hochrein finished with 16 saves.

Hereford got one goal each from JP Revitte, Ian Smith, Finn McGee, Oliver Shive and Brenden Kittner and goalie Luke Barnett had eight saves.

Park fed Arrup for his first goal less than three minutes into the game, and a spin move and score by Richardson was followed by another Arrup tally off a Jackson Kanzler feed, and the lead was 3-0 with 4:22 left in the first quarter.

“As a freshman, getting a lot of playing time against this team kind of built a lot of confidence, so it was great to get after it today and I think the team is kind of rolling,” Arrup said. ‘We’ve won a lot of games, obviously by a lot of goals, and this game is a rivalry in the county, but at the end of the day we still have business to take care of.”

Following a failed clear, Shive scored a fast-break goal cutting the deficit to 3-1. Hereford’s Revitte intercepted a pass 40 yards out and raced in unscathed to cut lead in half and McGee scored off Shive’s assist tying the game at 3.

That’s when Towson’s defense, led by long poles Matthew Spencer, Zach Mangiafico, Graham Gleason and Jack Nowlan took over, holding the Bulls scoreless for nearly 18 minutes while the Generals built the lead to 10-3.

“They have a great team over there and they are well-coached. We just have a lot of faith in our defense right now,” Towson coach Phil Rossetti said. ‘We just know coming back we are going to play settled defense and we trust those guys. They were disciplined today. Offensively, I think for us decision-making today was much better than it was Thursday at Catonsville.”

The Generals were coming off a 6-5 win over Catonsville last week.

The last of the seven consecutive goals came from Arrup off an extremely difficult side angle where he found a sliver of room beside Barnett’s stick.

“To be honest, like I’m just shooting to shoot because at the end of the day, if it goes in it goes in and if it doesn’t, I’ve got my teammates to back it up,” said Arrup, admitting shooting against teammate Hochrein helps. “He’s an amazing goalie so it’s definitely amazing competition in practice and that really prepares us definitely for games.”

“It’s a goalie with great vision and the more the play slows down in front of him he gets a look at it. I like his chances over most shooters,” Hereford coach Kyle Leppert said.

Arrup’s four goals represented a career-high for the sophomore.

“Tonight was his best game of the year,” Rossetti said. “He’s only a sophomore, but he plays big. He’s a great decision-maker, very smooth with the ball and he plays like an upperclassman, so I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

The loss was the second in eight games for the Bulls, who will play at Catonsville Thursday in a rematch of last year’s Baltimore County championship game.

‘We’ve had a good slate of challenges, this might be one of the best we’ve had so far, the hope is to keep the view forward and take away from it what we can and know where we can get stronger,” Leppert said. “The blessing sometimes is having to put it behind you quickly because you know you’ve got a tough task ahead and with three games left in the county there is still a chance to get back in the county championship that these guys are probably on a path for. It’s too late in the season to spend too long playing bad lacrosse.”

Towson — 3 4 4 1 — 12

Hereford— 1 2 1 1 — 5

Goals: Tow — Hudson Arrup 4 Ansen Park 2, Max Kosmedes 2, Zach Hochrein 1, Alex Tyler 1, Connor Parks 1, Luke Richardson 1;  Here — Brenden Kittner 1, JP Revitte 1, Ian Smith 1, Finn McGee 1, Oliver Shive 1; Assists: Tow — Park 3, Arrup 2, Jackson Kantzler 1, Parks 1; Here — Shive 1, Brady Manankil 1 Saves: Tow — Alex Hochrein 15, Andrew Giordani 2, Here — Luke Barnett 8.