SALISBURY, Md. - Senior co-captain Eric
Bishop stepped up in the first half of Wednesday's NCAA
Division III men's lacrosse quarterfinal game and took over for the
top-ranked Salisbury University Sea Gulls. Bishop scored five
straight goals en route to a season and game high seven goal and
nine point performance as Salisbury defeated No. 7 Roanoke College
15-9 before 828 at Sea Gull Stadium.
Salisbury (21-0) advances to its fifth straight national
semifinal game where the Gulls will host No. 2 Gettysburg College
on Saturday, May 19 at 1 p.m. at Sea Gull Stadium. The winner of
that game will advance to the national championship game in
Baltimore on May 27 at 1:30 p.m. Gettysburg defeated Ithaca 11-5 on
Wednesday afternoon at home. The 21 wins this season by the Sea
Gulls is a new team record.
The visiting Maroons (15-5) jumped out to a 3-0 lead less then
four minutes into the game to throw the SU defense onto their
heels. The Salisbury offense went to work and slowly chipped away
at the lead. Junior midfielder Brett Yoder (three
assists) found Bishop twice on back-to-back goals as SU trailed 3-2
at the end of the quarter.
Bishop scored the first three goals in the decisive second
quarter where the Gulls outscore the Maroons 5-0. Fellow senior
Matt Dasinger (one goal, two assists) and junior
Greg Titus (three goals, one assist) got into the
mix as they scored a goal apiece to send SU into the half up 7-3.
SU senior goalie Max Zarchin played his best
game of the season as he stopped 10 of his season-high 15 saves in
the first half. Roanoke took 19 first half shots and 39 for the
game.
The Maroons dominated early on faceoffs as they won 5-of-6 in
the first quarter and 8-of-12 after the first half. SU got back on
track in the second half as the Gulls won 8-of-11 in the third. For
the game SU won 15-of-28.
Roanoke was led offensively by junior attackman Zach Thomas who
scored three of his team-high four goals in the second half. The
Maroons had five other players register one goal in the game.
Freshman goalie Jake Dorsey made 12 saves in between the pipes for
the Maroons.
SU went on a 4-0 run midway through the third quarter to stake
itself to a 13-5 lead. Roanoke scored two goals within a 20 second
span with the latter on one of the Maroons three extra-man goals on
the afternoon. The Maroons scored one more goal to complete their
3-0 run to cut the lead back to five, 13-8, to begin the fourth
quarter.
Bishop, who had two third quarter assists, scored two goals in
the fourth quarter to give the maroon and gold the extra insurance
to secure win number 59 in a row at home. The senior attackman
registered at least two points in each quarter. He also took over
the team scoring lead with 92 points (61 goals, 31 assists).
Bishop's seven goals also made him the third Sea Gull this season
to surpass the 60-goal plateau.
Salisbury had seven different goal scorers and assisted on 13 of
its 15 goals. SU took 47 shots, scooped up 43 groundballs and was
24-of-26 on clears.
