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The NCAA News -- June 7, 1999

Salisbury State goes back to future for men's lacrosse win

BY MARTY BENSON
STAFF WRITER

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland -- The past means little to most coaches, unless you're talking about what happened on the field a few minutes ago. Salisbury State's Jim Berkman is no exception.

After he directed the school to its third Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship, but first since 1995, the Sea Gulls' coach pointed out that while this success was nothing new for Salisbury, it was a different experience for student-athletes on this year's team. None of the student-athletes had even reached the championship game, let alone walked away with the trophy. For the last three seasons, that honor belonged to either Nazareth or Washington (Maryland), which tangled for the last three championships.

But on this sunspot better known as Maryland's Byrd Stadium, the Sea Gulls flew to a 4-1 first-quarter lead May 30 and never looked back, running away from Middlebury, 13-6.

"This one is special because this is a new era," Berkman said. "None of these players has ever been here before. But we really thought we should have been here the last three years with some of the good players we had."

Berkman said not only had the faces changed for Salisbury State, so had the style.

"Our strengths this year were a little bit different," he said. "We have finishers (on attack) and not carriers. We've got big, physical kids in the midfield and we use that strength and size to initiate and get the ball to our shooters. Not many Division III teams can handle our midfielders physically."

Not only could relative novice Middlebury, which was in its first men's lacrosse championship, not handle the midfield, the Panthers also had trouble with the rest of the Sea Gulls, preventing the school from capturing its fourth national championship of the academic year.

While Salisbury was getting three goals from Brian Smith (who was named the game's most outstanding player) and a pair of goals from both Peter Troup and Joe High, Middlebury's previously high-scoring bunch managed but one tally in each of the first two quarters to trail at the half, 7-2.

Senior Panthers attackman Adam Pascal had four times as many goals himself in the team's quarterfinal 16-7 win over defending champion Washington (Maryland), one-upping the single-game tournament record of seven. Five student-athletes shared the mark previously. Pascal finished the title game with one goal and two assists, enough to set another record for tournament points (24). The previous record was 23.

Such numbers impressed most everyone but their producer.

"I don't take much satisfaction in that at all," Pascal said. "I'll probably come to a future tournament and look to see if my name is still in the record book, but there's not much satisfaction because personal success can only take you so far."

The few times Middlebury penetrated Salisbury's defense, goalkeeper Jason Tarnow, a transfer from Michigan State, stood tall, sparking his team and deflating the other.

"The kid was making unbelievable saves all day long," said Troup, who had two goals and an assist. "He was just pulling them out of everywhere."

"We made some good passes and had some good shots but Tarnow came up big time after time," echoed Middlebury coach Erin Quinn.

"Getting up by four early was really a key," said Tarnow, who finished with a season-high 19 saves. "It really took the pressure off."

Berkman said that having scouted the Panthers' semifinal win over Rochester Institute of Technology and having played Middlebury last year gave his team a good idea of what it would have to do to win.

"We played them last year, so our kids knew to respect what we said about them being great athletes," he said.

Obviously, one of the main ideas was to stop Pascal, who did not find the net until seven seconds remained in the first half.

"We did a lot of different things defensively," Berkman said. "He saw three or four different looks. We knew we had to body him up when he got the ball."

While Berkman was not interested in how his previous teams related to this one, he said one thing will make this championship stand out from the others.

"Unless some modifications are made, next year the teams in the tournament will be determined by conference champions," he said. "That means that this may be the last time a team gets this far by beating the best, so we feel especially proud to have won it."

Salisbury finished the season 17-1; Middlebury fell to 15-2.

SEMIFINALS

Middlebury 15, RIT 14; Salisbury St. 14, Denison 7.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Middlebury 1 1 2 2 -- 6

Salisbury St. 4 3 2 4 -- 13

Middlebury scoring -- Holt Hopkins 2, Zach Hebert 1, Adam Pascal 1, David Seeley 1, Jon-Erik Borgen 1.

Salisbury St. scoring -- Brian Smith 3, Peter Troup 2, Joe High 2, Chris Turner 1, Josh Bergey 1, Dave DiPaola 1, Chris Bray 1, Tim Parks 1, Kevin Fox 1.

Shots: Middlebury 43, Salisbury St. 43. Saves: Middlebury -- Dave Campbell 17; Salisbury St. -- Jason Tarnow 19, John Dodson 0. Paid Attendance: 17,418.