SALISBURY, Md. - Junior Kylor Berkman took a pass from senior Bruce Richardson and scored the game-winner for top-ranked Salisbury University with 2:48 left in double overtime to defeat No. 3 Gettysburg College, 11-10, before 1,411 at Sea Gull Stadium. The victory sends the Sea Gulls to their 11th NCAA Division III men's lacrosse national championship game.

"I didn't think about it. I just shot it as hard as I could," said Kylor Berkman (two goals, one assist) of the game-winning goal.

Salisbury (21-0) will meet second-ranked SUNY Cortland (18-1) for a third consecutive year in the national title game. The two teams will square off on Sunday, May 25, at 1:30 p.m. in Foxborough, Mass., in Gillette Stadium. SU defeated Cortland 15-9 in the championship last year in Baltimore. The Red Dragons took down Salisbury 13-12 in overtime the year before in Philadelphia.

Cortland stomped seventh-ranked Ithaca College 16-5 in the other national semifinal on Sunday afternoon.

The Sea Gulls have won 44 consecutive games since the start of the 2007 season and will take a 74-0 home winning streak into the 2009 season.

Salisbury trailed the Bullets, for the majority of the game, and faced a 9-7 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter. Richardson (two goals, two assists) and sophomores Jake DeLillo (two goals) and Mike Von Kamecke scored three straight goals to give SU its first lead since 10:06 left in the second quarter. The Gulls held the 10-9 lead until 2:19 remained in regulation when Gettysburg season leading scorer Joe Brody (two goals, one assist) scored an unassisted goal past SU goalie Nick Fiorentino (eight saves) to knot the score at 10 a piece and force overtime.

Gettysburg won the face-off in the first overtime period and got off two shots to Salisbury's one shot in the four-minute extra period but the score remained tied at 10. The second overtime period started with SU winning the face-off behind Ryan Finch (13-for-15 on face-offs, 10 ground balls) winning his 13th face-off of the game. After a Salisbury timeout the Sea Gulls set-up the game-winning play as Richardson found a wide-open Berkman on the right-side of the Gettysburg goal.

"I am awfully proud as a coach and a dad that the last shot went in," said SU coach Jim Berkman. "That is the biggest shot of his career."

The other story of the game was the play of Fiorentino in between the pipes for the Sea Gulls. The fifth-year senior earned his second victory and start of the season in the net for SU. His eight saves is a season-high.

"Yeah I was nervous to begin with but once I got that first save and the game got going things went real well," said Fiorentino. "I got into the game and got into a rhythm."

His last start was over a month ago against Hood College in the first round of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament.

"I think Nick's performance today was a tribute to all of the guys that had been on the sidelines over the past 20 years that probably didn't play as much as they wanted to, but they worked hard every day in practice," said Jim Berkman. "It is a reflection of all of the guys that have been behind the scenes that have been integral parts of Sea Gull lacrosse."

The SU defense dominated in front of Fiorentino and made the Bullets work for every shot. The Sea Gull defense held the Bullets scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the third quarter and first 13 minutes in the fourth. Senior defender Ryan Phillips caused four Gettysburg turnovers and scooped up six ground balls. Sophomore long-stick midfielder Connor Burgasser caused three turnovers and scored his first two points of the season with an unassisted goal in the second quarter to give SU a 3-2 lead and an assist to senior Kevin Kustron at the start of the third quarter.

The Sea Gulls caused 15 turnovers as a team and scooped up 35 ground balls compared to the 28 scooped by Gettysburg. The maroon and gold outshot the Bullets 49-33 for the game and dominated the faceoff circle as SU won 17-of-26 face-offs. The two teams were nearly perfect on clears as Gettysburg was 26-for-26 and SU was 24-for-25.

The Bullets were led offensively by Eastern Shore native Trip Dyer's three goals followed by two goals apiece from Ben Sufrin, Brody and Tom O'Donnell (two assists). Gettysburg goalie Zach Furshman made a game-high 14 saves in the loss.

This is the fourth time these two teams have met in the national semifinal round and the second year in a row. Salisbury is now 4-0 all-time against Gettysburg in the semifinals as the previous three wins led to national titles in 1994, '95 and 2007. Last season, Salisbury edged Gettysburg 9-6 at Sea Gull Stadium. During the regular-season the Sea Gulls battled back from a 7-2 halftime deficit on the road to win 11-8 against the Bullets.

"I think I am 10 times more tired then I was last time [against Gettysburg]. We were in it the whole game, we were never as far behind," said Kylor Berkman. "Lacrosse is a game of runs. We were never worried when we were down."

Today's overtime victory was the first since the 2006 national championship game against SUNY Cortland. The game before in the 2006 national semifinals Salisbury needed overtime to defeat Roanoke College, 13-12.

The Sea Gulls are also 7-0 in the NCAA tournament since 2007 and 22-1 in the postseason since 2003.     

"I can't tell you how impressed I am with my teammates. It was a gutsy performance," said Fiorentino.