TOWSON, Md. --- Denver needed an answer on close defense in the wake of Dylan Johnson’s season-ending knee injury.

The Pioneers might have found it in Maryland transfer Matt Neufeldt.

The long-time force at long pole forced four turnovers in his first start on close defense for the Pioneers Saturday as Denver edged Towson 7-6.

“Different world,” Neufeldt marveled. “The last time I was down there was my freshman year and I got benched immediately.”

Ted Sullivan scored his third goal with 1:13 to go for the Pioneers (5-2), who were playing for the first time in two weeks. Goalie Tyler Canto made 11 saves for Towson (5-3), which dropped its third in a row.

It was no one’s idea of a crisp outing for either team — Towson had 20 turnovers, Denver 17 — but it was the first chance for the Pioneers to deploy a retooled defense after Johnson suffered a torn ACL in the days leading into a March 9 loss to Notre Dame in Costa Mesa, Calif.

The Pioneers still had tested players at that end of the field in senior Dylan Gaines (a three-year starter) and junior Colin Squires, who has started for much of the last season and a half. Senior goalie Alex Ready has also been a mainstay for nearly his entire career.

Denver took an aggressive posture on defense early in the season, but the timing of Johnson’s injury left them scrambling against Notre Dame. The quick fix: A conservative defensive approach. The band-aid didn’t work, and the Irish earned a 10-7 victory.

“After that, we said ‘Look, we lost a game. We can’t play that way. It’s not our style. We have to play aggressively. … Win or lose, this is who we are. So let’s just play this way,’’” said coach Bill Tierney, who earned his 399th career victory Saturday.

With an unscheduled open date created when poor weather didn’t allow the Pioneers to get to Ohio State last weekend, there was time to rework things.

Enter Neufeldt, who left his mark at Maryland as an exceptional faceoff wing even as an injury cost him the 2016 season. And while Tierney pointed out many defensemen are forced to play up top at times, it was still a different neighborhood for Neufeldt as he marked Towson attackman Brody McLean.

“We have so many guys who can step up that after we had a week to figure everything out, we’ve been able to mold as a new unit,” Gaines said.

While Denver’s defense acquitted itself well — it was the first time Towson failed to reach 10 goals all season — it was also helped by the Tigers’ sloppiness. Towson is averaging 22.7 turnovers during its losing streak, and while the caliber of the competition (Cornell, Duke and Denver) is a factor, it doesn’t explain everything.

Among the problems in the final minutes: A poor pass from attackman Brendan Sunday with 2:05 left and it was still tied; an offsides coming out of a timeout; and a picked off heave in the final seconds to prevent a desperation attempt to tie it.

“At 6-6, we have a timeout and a guy like Brendan who is just trying to transfer the ball to X and sails it over the top, and it’s like ‘What? Why does that happen?’” coach Shawn Nadelen said. “You can’t put a finger on it. It’s just simple execution, simple lacrosse.”

It was a pairing of teams with credible at-large hopes. Towson owns victories over Loyola, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown, and it will spend the next five weeks navigating Colonial Athletic Association play. Defending champ Massachusetts (6-3) has rattled off five consecutive victories, while Delaware (7-2) has also shown improvement.

Meanwhile, Denver added to a resume already featuring an early March triumph at North Carolina as it began a two-game East Coast swing. The Pioneers face Princeton on Tuesday in Tierney’s return to a campus where he helped win six national titles, then venture into Big East play with home dates against Georgetown and Villanova the next two weekends.

Rest assured, Neufeldt will be asked to play a large role on a Pioneer defense that has yet to allow more than 10 goals this season.

“He was a four-year guy at Maryland,” Tierney said. “He was an active player in three [final fours]. He gives us a little bit of maturity there. He’s fit in so well with the guys. He just has a little bit of savvy. We’ve tried other guys and it’s been OK, but I thought he did a great job today.”

It’s also safe to assume Neufeldt will feel a bit more settled as he takes to his new position at Denver.

“It was a little nerve-wracking coming back down there --- like I said, not great times [in the past] --- but Gaines and Squires and Ready [were] my eyes throughout the week, teaching me the ropes and little things they’ve picked up on through the years and they really put me in a good position,” Neufeldt said.