My opinion of the Division III lacrosse landscape went through many machinations this year, but the one thing that I always came back to was this: nobody, at least up north, was going to beat RIT. Well, as we stand just days away from the national championship game, the Tigers are nowhere in sight. In their place is Tufts, having earned the right to face Salisbury, the top seed in the south, by toppling RIT in convincing fashion. For the third time in the last five years the Jumbos and the Seagulls will meet with a trophy on the line.
Photo courtesy of Flickr/gomustangs
The first two iterations of this series went in totally opposite directions. The first was back in 2010 at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium and began with Tufts swapping jerseys at the last minute to alternate brown uniforms that must have had a little magic in them. The Jumbos controlled possessions, silenced Salisbury’s attack, and left Baltimore with a 9-6 win.
The following year, also in Baltimore, was the Sam Bradman show. The All-American midfielder scored seven goals, a championship record, as the Seagulls dominated the game from start to finish. It was a dominating display by a team that felt cheated out of a championship the year before. David can only knock Goliath down once before the monster gets angry.
Which brings us to 2014.
Tufts is scorching hot after its 21-11 win over RIT last weekend behind a Bradman-esque game from Beau Wood. Patton Watkins, who gave up nine goals and took the loss against Salisbury back in 2011, continued his strong run of play with 20 saves while three-plus goal games from Cole Bailey (5 goals, assist), John Uppgren (3 goals) and Ben Andreyak (3 goals) helped push the Jumbos offense over the top.
Salisbury is equally hot, having won every game since its puzzling loss to Christopher Newport on April 2 by at least three goals. Sean Fitzgerald and Mike Kane tallied hat tricks in the Seagulls semifinal win over Washington College while Kane, Luke Phipps and Greg Korvin all netted three against previously unbeaten Denison in the quarterfinals. Teams with championship aspirations were reduced to rubble in the face of Jim Berkman’s offense and Alex Taylor’s individual excellence in the net.
In a sense, this game is a matchup between the unstoppable force that is Tufts’ offense and the immovable object that is Salisbury’s defense and goaltending – only if the immovable object also had an unstoppable force in its back pocket. The Seagulls have been on a war path since the season started and, save the lone hiccup, have been one of the best teams in the country since the outset. With one more obstacle standing between them and their eleventh national championship, its hard to imagine they will be slowed down.
But that is why they play the games. Should all of Tufts’ stars align and some of Salisbury’s cross, the Jumbos could stun the Seagulls again, but this is Salisbury’s game to lose and I don’t believe this group is going to allow that happen.
Prediction: Salisbury, 14-9
