ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - Sophomore attackman
Chris Becraft scored an unassisted goal for St. Mary's (Md.)
College with two tenths of a second left in Friday's game
against Capital Athletic Conference power Salisbury University to
lift the Seahawks past the No. 5 Sea Gulls, 11-10, before 389 at
Seahawk Stadium.
For the first time in program history Salisbury, the 14-time
defending CAC champions, has lost back-to-back conference games.
This is the first victory for the Seahawks against SU since April
5, 1977 when SMC won 13-12 in overtime at home. Salisbury had won
the previous 37 games in a row including two overtime games. This
is the fifth one-goal game in the series history that dates back to
1974. Salisbury leads the series 39-3. The other SMC victory came
via a SU forfeit in 1976. The Sea Gulls won the '76 game but later
had to forfeit.
The loss also ends a 37-game road winning streak that dates back
to May 12, 2002 when SU lost 7-5 to No. 1 Gettysburg College in the
NCAA tournament. That streak does not include neutral site venues.
Salisbury (11-3, 5-2 CAC) tied the game at 10-10 on sophomore
Erik Krum's third goal of the game with 2:20 left
in the fourth quarter. The Sea Gulls led by as much as two goals,
9-7 early in the fourth, when junior Mike Von
Kamecke (two goals) scored a man-up goal off an assist
from senior All-American midfielder Kylor Berkman
(three assists). SMC (7-5, 5-2 CAC) scored three unanswered goals
to take a 10-9 lead with five minutes left in the game. The
Seahawks outscored the Sea Gulls 4-2 in the decisive fourth
quarter.
The victory gives SMC the second seed in the upcoming CAC
tournament while Salisbury falls to the third seed. The Seahawks
are led by Coach Chris Hasbrouck who is a Salisbury alum (Class of
1995, M '97) and former Sea Gull assistant coach for 11
seasons.
The Seahawks scored the game's first two goals before Salisbury
responded with two quick marks from freshman Matt
Cannone (two goals) and senior Patrick
Bonanno (one goal). SMC sophomore attackman Dennis Rosson
scored the first of his game-high four goals at the 3:05 mark in
the opening quarter. SU rallied back with two goals off the sticks
of Krum and junior defensive midfielder Will
Poletis (one goal, one assist) to take a 4-3 lead.
SMC dominated the second quarter as the Seahawks scored three
straight and took a 7-6 lead into the half.
SU outscored St. Mary's 2-0 in the third quarter as Von Kamecke
and sophomore Shawn Zordani (one goal) beat
Seahawk goalie Pat Simpson (15 saves) with their shots.
Sophomore goalie Johnny Rodriguez (two saves)
started the game for SU but got pulled late in the second quarter
after he surrendered his seventh goal. Fellow sophomore Tim
Swinburn (0-1) came in to finish out the game as he made
three saves in the final 34 minutes of play.
Salisbury controlled a lot of the statistical categories as the
maroon and gold outshot SMC 46-25, scooped up 40 ground balls, made
16-of-17 clear attempts and scored the only extra-man goal. St.
Mary's won 13-of-24 face-offs but also led the game with 31
turnovers.
This is only the second time in 20 seasons that Salisbury has
lost back-to-back games in a season. The last time Salisbury
dropped two in a row happened on March 16, 2002 with an 11-5 loss
to SUNY Cortland at home, a span of over 150 games. The week before
SU dropped a 14-13 contest against Ohio Wesleyan University on
March 10 at home.
Salisbury, the No. 3 seed, will host No. 6 seed University of
Mary Washington on Monday, April 13, at 4 p.m. The Sea Gulls beat
the Eagles 14-5 back on March 31. The winner of this conference
quarterfinal game will advance to the semifinals, set to be held on
Thursday, April 16, at No. 2 seed St. Mary's. The championship is
slated for Sunday, April 19, at the highest remaining seed.
