SALISBURY, Md. – The top-ranked Salisbury University men's lacrosse team powered through the Coast Guard Bears, 22-8, on Saturday to extend its season-opening win streak to four games.

THE RUNDOWN

Final Score: No. 1 Salisbury 22, Coast Guard 8
Record: Salisbury (4-0) | Coast Guard (2-2)
Location: Sea Gull Stadium - Salisbury, Md. 

BOX SCORE

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Coast Guard jumped out to an early 1-0 lead off a man-up opportunity when Riley McNulty found Will Iorio open in front of T.J. Ellis to score the first goal of the game. 

• Salisbury answered with five unanswered goals after Coast Guard's early goal. Isaac Thrasher got the Sea Gulls' first goal of the game in a 2-on-1 opportunity with his defender and placed his shot high. 

• Cross Ferrara scored his first goal of the day only a minute after Thrasher. Josh Melton and Jarrett Bromwell added their names to the scoring sheet within three minutes of each other. Ferrara followed with his second tally of the day to increase the lead to 5-1. Coast Guard answered Salisbury's five-goal run with a goal from the top by Riley McNulty with 6:22 left on the clock. 

• Salisbury and Coast Guard then exchanged goals to close out the quarter. Salisbury answered the Coast Guard goal with one of their own coming from Bromwell off a pass by Melton. Coast Guard scored forty seconds later when Caleb Holdridge received a pass from Justin Edwards to shoot around Ellis with 1:24 remaining in the first. 

• Ferrara completed a first-quarter hat-trick when he scored with seven seconds remaining in the quarter to hold a 7-3 lead over Coast Guard at the end of the frame.

• During the second, Salisbury held Coast Guard scoreless while tallying six more goals. Melton had his hand in four of the six goals. Coming out of the half, Griffin Moroney scored his first goal of the day off an assist from Melton. Melton then scored two goals in a row for his third and fourth tallies of the day. The third goal came unassisted with 11:06 remaining in the half with his fourth coming off a pass from Logan Posner to extend the Salisbury lead to 10-3 with 7:05 left in the first half. 

• After a holding penalty on the Bears, Melton found Pierre Armstrong for a man-up goal to lengthen the Salisbury lead, 11-3. 

• Brad Greik tallied the Sea Gulls' 12th goal of the game after taking the ball from the defensive end to the Salisbury attacking end to score through the Coast Guard defense. 

• The Sea Gulls had another man-up opportunity after a Coast Guard slashing penalty. Posner capitalized on the man-up opportunity after retrieving the pass from Melton to put Salisbury up 13-3 at halftime.

• Coming out of the break, Salisbury pushed its scoring run to eight with a goal by Moroney after Luke Nestor found him open in front of the cage. Coast Guard broke Salisbury's eight-goal run that spanned 17-plus minutes of game time with an Iorio goal with 9:47 left in the third quarter.

• Salisbury went on another four-goal run starting with another Melton score from a pass by Thrasher. Later in the quarter, Gavin Dembeck then found Ferarra for his fourth goal of the afternoon. Melton found Armstrong for a man-up goal with just under five minutes left in the third. Dembeck then got his name in the scoring column when he scored the Salisbury's 18th goal of the game off a pass from Thrasher with 3:14 remaining in the third quarter. 

• Coast Guard answered the Salisbury four-goal flurry with a two-goal run of its own at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth with goals by Matty Johnson and McNulty.

• Salisbury found the back of the net to stop the two-goal run when Ferrara scored his fifth of the day off a pass from Nestor. Coast Guard answered back with a goal coming from Holdridge again with an assist by Iorio. 

• A pair of Ferrara goals with a Coast Guard goal in between pit Salisbury up 20-7 with 8:16 left in the game.

• Ryan Brown and a behind-the-back goal by Josh Sanchez capped off the scoring for Salisbury to help secure the victory.

• Coast Guard put away the final goal of the game with just under 2:30 left in regulation by Caleb Holdridge.

GAME NOTES

• Cross Ferrara led the team in goals with six for the Sea Gulls. Ferrara's six goals ties his career-high set a season ago against Southern Virginia on April 20, 2019.

• Josh Melton matched his career-best assist total with six helpers in the win. Melton also added four goals.

• T.J. Ellis racked up five saves in the goal and Brandon Warren added two saves.

• Brett Malamphy won 16-of-19 faceoffs and picked up a team-high 13 ground balls. 

• Jackson Woodward scooped up six ground balls and caused two turnovers.

• Brad Apgar and Kevin Murphy each caused a pair of turnovers.

• Caleb Holdridge scored six goals for the Bears.

• Salisbury had the 46-26 ground ball advantage over Coast Guard.

• Salisbury went 24-for-34 in the faceoff circle.

UP NEXT

• Salisbury will hit the road for a mid-week game in New Jersey against Stevens on Wednesday, March 4

• The game is set to begin at 1 p.m.

• Live stats and video will be provided.