While the Orioles were busy locking up a win in Fenway Park, the Ravens were doing something in the preseason and the entire Baltimore Sports Report Network gang was drafting their fantasy football teams, the Towson Tigers were winning the biggest game in the history of their football program. In their season opener, Towson smoked UConn 33-18 in an all around dominant effort.
The victory was Towson’s first victory in seven attempts over an opponent from the bowl subdivision. UConn hadn’t lost to an FCS team since 2001 when they transitioned from Division 1-AA to Division 1.
Tigers running back Terrance West rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns. West had a career-high 36 carries and put the game out of reach for the Huskies with his two fourth-quarter TDs. It was the junior’s 12th 100-yard game of his career. West now has 46 touchdowns in 22 career games, one shy of the school record set by Jason Corle in 1999.
Quarterback Peter Athens threw for 192 yards and a TD.
Defensively, the Tigers limited UConn to 290 yards of total offense and forced two turnovers. Towson dominated time of possession, 36:23-23:37.
Beating an FBS opponent is a huge step for Towson, but for coach Rob Ambrose it may be even more meaningful to defeat UConn, where he served as an assistant coach for seven seasons. “This is important to us because we have played well against FBS teams in the past but we haven’t been able to get a victory,” Ambrose said according to TowsonTigers.com. “We do have team goals and in order to reach those goals, we had to win tonight. It doesn’t matter who we played. We were committed to winning this game.”
Towson beat UConn tonight by 15 points. That's the 3rd-largest win by an FCS Team vs a BCS-AQ Team since 2000.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 30, 2013
Towson’s 15-point margin of victory is the third-largest win by an FCS team against a BCS-AQ team since 2000.
