The undefeated Minutemen set a program record with their 14th victory, and will next face Drexel in the CAA championship game Saturday night at Garber Field.
AMHERST – The tallest member of the University of Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team rose to the occasion Wednesday night.
After putting up with Towson’s slow motion offense for most of the first quarter, 6 foot 6 junior Colin Fleming put a flame to the Tigers’ game plan with the game's first goal, and send the Minutemen to a 10-3 Colonial Athletic Association semifinal victory before 1,424 at Garber Field.
05/02/12-Amherst-Staff Photo by Dave Roback- UMass vs Towson in CAA tourney action. Here UMass (29) Art Kell celebrtates (28) Colin Fleming's second goal of the game.With the win, the Minutemen will host the CAA final against Drexel Saturday night at 7.
Drexel defeated Penn State 13-11 Wednesday night in the other semifinal. UMass defeated Drexel, 8-6, April 14 at Bethpage (N.Y.) High School, N.Y.
Fleming scored four goals, Will Manny contributed a goal and five assists, and senior defenseman Tom Celentani scored the first goal of his collegiate career in taming the Tigers. Art Kell also wound up with three goals.
The Minutemen also withstood having taken the first seven penalties of the game, and had 10 penalties overall for their only real black mark for the contest.
The win was undefeated UMass’ 14th, the most in program history.
In the first quarter, the Tigers kept the pace slow, several times receiving stall warnings. There were only eight shots taken in the quarter, six by UMass.
The strategy worked for most of the period, but UMass defender Brett Tobin of Wilbraham came up with the ball with 23 seconds remaining, and up the other end, Fleming scored with only six seconds left, muscling off two defenders.
UMass coach Greg Cannella said that Towson "came in very prepared" and ran a zone defense to slow things down.
The second quarter was all UMass as the Minutemen outpointed the Tigers 5-0.
Fleming scored again with 13:15 remaining, on a pass from Connor Mooney of Wilbraham. 
"That's the great thing about this sport, you can perform at the highest level regardless of size," Cannella said, seated between Fleming and 5-foot-8 Manny during the post-game press conference. "And if you have the skill and athletic ability of Colin, the size can be to your advantage."
On a beautiful feed from Manny, Celentani scored his first career goal to make it 3-0 with 11:32 left in the second period.
"Like Colin's goal, that's the kind of goal that sparks us," Cannella said.
The Tigers had a chance to get back into the game as UMass took two simultaneous penalties. But Towson did little with the offensive advantage, and that set the tone for the remainder of the period.
On another nice pass from Manny, Kyle Smith of Longmeadow registered his 29th goal of the season to widen the gap to 4-0 with 8:04 remaining.
Kell, again from Manny, added the fifth goal with 5:47 to play.
Fleming added his third goal of the night with 1:23 to play in the half.
Just went it appeared that Towson would never get in the game, the Tigers scored the first two goals of the third quarter.
Sophomore midfielder Art Hodgson tallied for Towson 28 seconds into the period for his 12th goal of the season.
Sean Maguire added another Tiger goal less than two minutes later to shake the Minutemen up a bit.
But with 4:46 to play in the third, Manny scored a goal of his own, his 40th of the season.
Kell notched his second goal with 12:16 left in the fourth quarter, and Fleming added his fourth goal 34 seconds later. Kell added the final goal of the contest with 37 seconds remaining.
UP TO THE MINUTE – This was only the sixth time the schools have met. They played in 1963, but not again until 2010 …The Tigers entered the game having lost four straight after winning five straight to become nationally ranked. They averaged 12.3 goals per game during the winning streak, but compiled a total of only 12 goals in the losing skein …UMass is looking for its 19th appearance in the NCAA tournament.