The Lacrosse Blog- May 27

Lacrosse has always been immensely popular in the state of Maryland.  Unfortunately, I know as much about the sport as Kevin Federline knows about ambition.  Therefore, my main man Bryan will be hooking you up with the lacrosse knowledge throughout the season.  Here is his latest installment:

Here is the final lacrosse recap of the season. Lets start with the “Boston Sea (Gull) Party” as the school’s web site called it. Salisbury won their 8th national title in 14 years with a 19-13 win over Cortland State. Kylor Berkman had 5 goals and 2 assists to win the Most Outstanding Player award. Bruce Richardson also had 5 goals for the Sea Gulls.  Nick Fiorentino also stepped up with a career high 14 saves. He will now join the Sea Gull coaching staff as a graduate assistant. Here are some amazing stats for Salisbury. They were 22-0 this season. They carry a 45 game winning streak into next season. In the last 6 years they are 124-2 with 5 national titles and lost in overtime in the sixth title game. Greg Titus missed the 2006 season but came back to play in 2007 and 2008. His final college record is 85-0. Not much more to say about this dynasty.

 

In division one Johns Hopkins pulled off a huge upset when they beat Duke 10-9 on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays slowed the pace of the game down by holding the ball on offense which frustrated Duke and forced them into making mistakes by trying to force passes and shots that weren’t there. In the other semifinal Syracuse beat Virginia 12-11 in double OT. The game winner was scored by Mike Leveille. It was his fifth of the game. Those two games set up the unlikely final of Johns Hopkins and Syracuse. Johns Hopkins started strong leading 4-2 after the first quarter. Unfortunately they had to keep playing and Syracuse dominated the second quarter to take a 6-5 halftime lead. Mike Gvozden kept Hopkins in the game with a couple great saves in that quarter. He would finish with 20 saves for the game. In the second half it was more of the same. Syracuse eventually would build a 13-8 lead and Hopkins never got back in the game. Hopkins had 23 turnovers and a couple defensive lapses which proved costly. Paul Rabil tried to keep Hopkins in it with 6 goals in his last game as a Blue Jay but it wasn’t enough.

 

Syracuse and Salisbury both are deserving 2008 champions.