May 25, 2008

by Clare Lochary, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff

In the men's Division III lacrosse final, both teams had the same modus operandi: shoot early and often.

Salisbury and Cortland took 75 combined shots, but the Sea Gulls put more in the back of the net in their defeat of the Red Dragons, 19-13, before a Division III championship record crowd of 24,317 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

The win was Salisbury's 45th straight, capping a perfect 22-0 season and giving the Sea Gulls their second consecutive national championship and eighth overall.

"This has been a storybook season for us," said head coach Jim Berkman, who secured his 330th career win. "We virtually were wiped out [by graduation] at the defensive end, and to come back and go undefeated, and to win another title, replacing all those guys, it's a tribute to our program."

Cortland's Joey Morgan (4g, 1a) scored on the game's first shot just 59 seconds in. Salisbury responded 28 ticks later when senior attacker Greg Titus (2g, 3a) tied the game at one on the Sea Gulls' first shot.

The Gulls put some distance between themselves and the Red Dragons with a 6-2 run to close the first quarter. Salisbury continued to pound Cortland starting goalie Mike Robinson, building a 13-7 lead with 8:39 remaining in the third quarter.

Cortland head coach Steve Beville pulled Robinson from the game midway in favor of backup Matt Hipenbecker, but subbed Robinson back in for the fourth stanza after Hipenbecker made only one save during his brief stint. Richardson finished with five saves.

"Mike was obviously struggling throughout the three quarters. I certainly don't put all our ills and troubles on Mike's shoulders, but he was having a tough time," said Beville. "We put Mike Hipenbecker in and really didn't get the spark we were looking for."

Even with Salisbury shooting 58 percent and getting goals from eight different players, Cortland hung in the game, stringing together a four-goal run in the third quarter. Senior attacker Ryan Heath started things by putting away a feed from midfielder Josh Cittadino at 8:07.

With the Red Dragons within three, 14-11, late in the third, the Gulls scored five of the final seven goals of the game, including three of Bruce Richardson's five markers on the day.

"It seemed like we'd put in two or three for most of the game and I felt we could come back, but we were just too far in the hole," said Heath.

Salisbury managed to secure the win despite Cortland's Cittadino winning 20-of-25 face-offs, many of which came after he dislocated his shoulder early in the game.

Sea Gulls junior midfielder Kylor Berkman, who was named the game's Most Outstanding Player, led all scorers with five goals and two assists. It was a performance his father and coach noted with a mix of professional and paternal pride.

"You've probably got a kid who has the best eyes, I think, almost to ever play the game in midfield," said Jim Berkman. "He's the third leading all-time assist guy at Salisbury and he's a junior and he plays midfield. When you think about some of the guys who played midfield at our institution, that's pretty incredible."

Salisbury also got a 14-save performance from former backup goalie Nick Fiorentino, who was promoted to starter when first- and second-string keepers Zach Krissoff and Riley Clark were suspended from the team after their May 17 arrest for vandalism.

The Red Dragons used a hard ride to limit Salisbury to 15-of-21 on clears, but Fiorentino was up to the task against the 42 shots Cortland sent at him.

"We wanted it to be an up-and-down type of game," said Beville, whose Red Dragons reached double digits in 18 of 20 games during a 18-2 season.

"And Salisbury beat us at our own game today."

An elated Fiorentino said he didn't mind the run-and-gun aspect of the highest-scoring Division III championship since 1995, and not just because he lived the dream of every player who's ever warmed a bench.

"I knew they were going to score some goals, so when that first one went in it was kind of a relief," he said.