Salisbury win CAC Championship
Written by Corey Atkinson, Tuesday April 21 2009
Attackmen Jake DeLillo and Matt Cannone combined for seven goals, and visiting Salisbury held Stevenson scoreless for the first half as the No. 10 Sea Gulls easily defeated No. 1 and previously unbeaten Stevenson, 13-5, in the Capital Athletic Conference championship game in Owings Mills.
Salisbury (14-3), the defending Division III champion, won its 15th consecutive conference championship and avenged a 12-8 loss to Stevenson (14-1) this season.
The Sea Gulls looked as if they were rounding into their usual championship form while the Mustangs appeared to be doing the opposite. Stevenson had numerous unforced turnovers and never had an offensive rhythm as the Mustangs played too much one-on-one. This might have been Stevenson's worst performance of the year.
By the end of the game, Stevenson had 10 penalties in 12 minutes.
It might have been out of frustration. The Sea Gulls' close defense of Collin Tokosch, Kevin Maynard and Jeff Breeding was excellent in shutting down the Mustangs' attack. Stevenson didn't score until midfielder Nick Bevacqua put the ball into the net with 9:11 left in the third quarter.
Until then, Salisbury had taken away Stevenson's transition game and a lot of its feeds inside to the crease.
DeLillo put the Sea Gulls up with two goals in the first quarter. He added a third for a 3-0 lead with 13:37 left in the second quarter, and after attackman Stephen Krasco converted off an extra-man situation, Salisbury had a 4-0 lead with 11:58 left in the half.
It just kept getting worse for the Mustangs as Salisbury scored almost every way possible from there on out, from catching deflections of shots to scooping up loose balls outside the crease to running fast breaks. Stevenson tried to press the ball defensively going into the fourth quarter without much success as Salisbury led 9-2 after three quarters.
For the Sea Gulls, this win was sweet revenge.
With the conference championship, Salisbury gets an automatic bid to the 22-team NCAA tournament. Stevenson should receive an at-large bid based partially on big wins over Gettysburg, Lynchburg and Salisbury.
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