Christopher Curry/ The Towerlight

In a battle for bragging rights between the Charles Street rivals, the Tigers (2-3) lost to the Loyola Greyhounds (3-1-1) 2-0 Tuesday at the Tiger Soccer Complex.

After a scoreless first half that saw Loyola outshoot Towson 9-3, the Greyhounds came out firing on all cylinders to start the second half.

Larry Ndjock received a through ball from Connor Thompson that split Towson’s defense and drew out freshman goalkeeper Felix Petermann.

Ndjock beat Petermann to the right and put the ball in the net in the 48th minute to give the Greyhounds a 1-0 advantage.

Six minutes later, Thompson was fouled inside the penalty box and capitalized to give Loyola a 2-0 lead.

“Defensively, it’s a matter of your spacing,” Head Coach Frank Olszewski said. “We gave too much space. We have to condense it, shorten the field a little bit, and be more compact.”

Thompson was vital in Loyola’s victory. Besides his goal and assist, he found himself open much of the game and created chances for the Greyhounds.

“He had a good game,” Olszewski said. “We didn’t account for him the way we should have accounted for him.”

Loyola got off 13 total shots in the game, four of them getting to Petermann, one of which made it in the goal.

Practice will make the defense stronger, sophomore co-captain Daniel Grundei said.

“We just have to work on that in practice,” Grundei said. “We know they have good movements in their midfield, we just have to keep our defense compact and stay on our marks.”

After Loyola’s second goal, Olszewski used a number of different players trying to find a spark to ignite his team.

Towson began to find some life and the team’s substitutions totaled three of its 10 shots on goal. Although they did not score, the Tigers created more opportunities for themselves.

Towson outshot Loyola 7-4 in the second half. The team also had chances to score on five corner kicks, a noticeable swing from the first half when they only had one corner compared to Loyola’s four. Loyola did not get a corner kick in the second half.

“It was a little bit of a revolving door,” Olszewski said of the second half. “We were shuffling the deck. The half chances were there, but the full chances weren’t.”

Olszewski credited Loyola’s age and defense to the loss.

“That’s a senior-laden team that we played,” he said. “They know how to manage the game. They don’t give away many goals. It’s a little bit more difficult. You’ve got to be a little bit more precise.”