HAVERFORD, Pa. - The No. 2 Salisbury University
men's lacrosse team began its national title defense with a 16-10
victory over No. 11 Haverford College on Saturday at Swann Field in
the 2009 NCAA Division III tournament second round. The Sea Gulls
(16-3), the two-time defending national champions, advance to
Wednesday's national quarterfinal where they face a familiar foe in
Capital Athletic Conference member and top-ranked Stevenson
University (16-1) in Owings Mills, Md., at 4 p.m.
SU received balanced scoring in the contest as seniors
Kylor Berkman (two assists) and Stephen
Krasco (one assist), juniors Jake DeLillo
(two assists), Mike Von Kamecke (one assist) and
Mike Winter plus sophomore Erik
Krum scored two goals. Senior Patrick
Bonanno (one assist), junior Will Poletis
and freshmen Matt Cannone (one assist) and
Sam Bradman (two assists) each scored one goal.
Freshman attackman Sean Hickey dished out one
assist in the contest.
The game featured three runs of four goals or more for Salisbury
as the Sea Gulls outscored Haverford 6-2 in the decisive third
quarter.
The road victory against Haverford marks the first NCAA
tournament road victory for Salisbury since May 8, 2002 when the
Gulls defeated Hampden-Sydney College, 15-8. The win also improves
SU's all-time record against the Fords to 3-0. This is the first
time Salisbury and Haverford have played each other since 1988.
The Fords (13-4) scored the game's first goal just two minutes
in. SU answered quickly as Bonanno, Berkman and Winter scored three
straight goals to close out the first quarter up 3-1. Cannone
scored his 50th goal of the season just 29 seconds into the second
quarter.
Haverford tried to swing the momentum in its favor with a 3-0
run thanks to Myles Monaghan (three goals, one assist), who netted
two goals in a minute span to knot the game at 4-4 midway through
the second quarter. SU scored two goals, in 25 seconds, from
Poletis and Krum off an assist from Cannone to take a 6-4 lead into
the half.
The Sea Gulls outshot Haverford in the opening half 28-9,
including 19-1 in the first quarter. SU scooped up 11 ground balls
in the first half compared to eight ground balls for the Fords.
Salisbury cleared the ball a perfect 10-for-10 in the first half
and won 8-of-12 face-offs.
Haverford scored the first goal of the third quarter to cut the
lead to one, 6-5, but that was as close as the Fords would get
against the eight-time national champion Sea Gulls. SU scored four
straight and six of the next seven goals to lead 12-6 after three
quarters of play.
In the fourth quarter, SU opened with three straight goals in
the opening five minutes as the Gulls led 15-6. Haverford outscored
the Sea Gulls 4-1 over the final 10 minutes of play.
The Sea Gulls outshot the Fords 52-27 and won 16-of-29
face-offs. Salisbury cleared at an almost perfect rate (19-for-20)
and scooped up 32 ground balls. The Fords were successful on
17-of-23 clears and scooped up 23 ground balls.
SU sophomore goalie Johnny Rodriguez played the
entire game between the pipes and recorded five saves and scooped
up two ground balls. Junior face-off specialist Ryan
Finch won 15-of-24 face-offs and scooped up a team-high
eight ground balls.
Haverford attackman Brian Fleishhacker and Monaghan each scored
three goals in the loss. Freshman goalkeeper Joe Banno suffered the
loss for the Fords as made nine saves in 54 minutes of action.
Stevenson defeated Cabrini 8-7 in another NCAA second round game
to set up a rubber match between the top two teams in Division III.
The Mustangs defeated the Sea Gulls 12-8 on April 4 at Sea Gull
Stadium in front of a crowd of 2,672. Two weeks later in the CAC
championship Salisbury defeated Stevenson 13-5 in front of 1,781 to
hand the Mustangs their first and only loss of the season.
