Towson University, ranked #5 by Goff Rugby Report, put in an impressive performance Saturday in defeating 10th-ranked Georgetown 43-7 in Capital Conference play.

The two highly-rated Men’s DII college programs knew this was a key game in figuring out who might win the conference, and played like it.

Towson unveiled a slightly changed defensive scheme to handle Georgetown’s hard-driving forwards, concentrating on stealing the ball in the rucks whenever possible.

Towson drew first blood. After being held up in-goal, Towson attacked from the ensuing five-meter scrum, and flyhalf Vince Francescangeli fed center Brian Shields who crashed over. Eric Sweeney converted.

Georgetown continued to pound the ball up with their forwards and tested the Towson defense. But then  flanker Will Ngonga poached a ball in the breakdown and ran 40 meters before offloading to  wing Tim Finnell to score in the corner. That made it 12-0. Georgetown responded in the 33rd minute with a try after some pressure and a Towson penalty. 

That made it 12-7 and Georgetown had a chance to tie it up once they got possession after the restart, but the Towson D forced them to kick, and on the counterattack Shields drew the defense then and offloaded to his younger brother Tim Shields, who blazed in to score in the corner. That made it 19-7, and that’s how the half ended.

In the second half Towson ran through the phases, forced Georgetown to be offside, and Lock Tyler Honeycutt pounded over. Sweeney’s kick made it 26-7. Sweeney then set up the next try, cutting weak side and passing to Francescangeli. Four minutes later, fullback Alex Walsh inserted into the line, drew a defender, and fed Brian Shields to score in the corner.  

Towson got another try when Sweeney stole the ball from a defensive five-meter scrum, and then Finnell raced over for the last one to make it 48-7.

Towson played 75 percent of the match in Georgetown's half of the pitch and essentially neutralized Georgetown's forwards game with tough defense and aggressively going after the ball, Flanker Anthony Bria had 23 tackles, while flanker Will Ngonga, No. 8 Nick DiPietro, and locks Tyler Honeycutt, and Michael Gouterman also played superbly.

So with Salisbury getting another forfeit win as Johns Hoopkins couldn’t fulfill the fixture, Towson leads the conference with a 4-0 record. Georgetown drops to 3-1, while Salisbury is 2-0 (both forfeit wins). All eyes are on the October 17 clash between Towson and Salisbury.