BALTIMORE -- Chris Phillips of Division III men's lacrosse champion Salisbury University has both a reflective and predictive mind. Apparently, those phases are sometimes nearly simultaneous.

With his team having just weathered a Middlebury comeback that erased Salisbury's 10-4 halftime lead, Phillips reflected on his lacrosse career before he and his team entered what proved to be a 29-second overtime period.

"I just thought, you know I've never really scored a goal in overtime before," Phillips said in the postgame press conference. "Then coach (Jim Berkman) called our 'cardinal' play and I knew it was going to come to me."

Phillips' vision materialized moments later when teammate Andy Murray won the sudden-victory opening faceoff, scooped the groundball and found teammate Chris Lauer, who in turn found Phillips for his 47th and last goal of the season.

The result? A 14-13 overtime victory over the Panthers that gave the Sea Gulls their fourth championship and first since 1999, when the runner-up also was Middlebury.

This sudden-victory moment was brought to you primarily by the play of the Sea Gulls' Josh Bergey, who won most outstanding player honors after finishing with four goals and three assists. Thinking that the opponents would be looking for the 6-0, 210-pound son of former NFL all-pro middle linebacker Bill Bergey one final time, Berkman instead called Phillips' number to try to end the overtime early. Moments later, all of the Sea Gulls were dropping their sticks and gloves where they stood or tossing them in the air to charge Phillips in celebration and the bench players were doing the same.

"I saw all of them coming off the bench and then had about fifteen 200-pound guys jumping on me," Phillips said.

It was a fitting end to a game that kept the soggy record crowd of 15,417 (turnstile) on its edge throughout the second half.

Middlebury's Eric Krieger, the likely most outstanding player had the Panthers won, set the second-half tone early for the Middlebury's comeback, snuffing nearly everything Salisbury threw at him. He had 10 saves in the second stanza alone and finished with 19.

Panthers coach Erin Quinn, who was attempting to win Middlebury's fourth straight national title, said he really didn't change anything at halftime to prompt the comeback.

"There really was not a change in strategy," said Quinn. "If there was any strategy we talked about, it was just to settle down. We had seen Salisbury on film, but I'm not sure that shows you how fast or explosive they are."

Whatever happened in the locker room, it worked. The Panthers scored four unanswered goals to open the third quarter. By the end of the period, the Salisbury lead was 11-8.

The fourth quarter alone provided enough fireworks to light up the drenched Memorial Day weekend Sunday skies.

The Panthers opened the period with the nearly the same success rate they had in the third quarter. Three consecutive goals knotted the score at 11, the last of the run coming on Andrew Giordano's unassisted goal with 11:54 left in the period. Bergey, who returned to his team on a mission after sitting out last season, answered with his own unassisted goal 13 seconds later, his 72nd of the season, to reclaim the lead for the representatives from Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Middlebury's Greg Bastis answered with 8:56 left on an unassisted goal in regulation.

Then Salisbury goalie Dan Korpon decided to trade highlight saves with Middlebury's Krieger. Shortly after Bastis' goal, Middlebury's Mike Saraceni looked to be a cinch to put the Panthers ahead from two yards in front of the crease but Korpon dug the shot from the mud.

The Panthers' Tom O'Connor had better luck moments later, giving Middlebury its second lead of the game, 13-12, with 6:19 left in regulation.

Krieger then squelched what looked to be a sure score by Salisbury's Andy Arnold, but after another trip down the field, Arnold connected to tie the game.

Middlebury's Dave Leach appeared to have the game-winner in his stick with 20 seconds left after a pass from Saraceni but Korpon equaled Krieger's heroics, saving the day for the Sea Gulls.

"We owned the second half," said Middlebury midfielder Mike Frissora. "We had the momentum going into overtime and we knew we would score if we got the ball."

They never did, and the Sea Gulls finished the season with a team-record 19 victories, the last nine coming consecutively, against one loss. The victory prevented Middlebury, which finished 18-1, from becoming the first team to win four consecutive Division III titles since Hobart won 12 straight from 1980 to 1991.

"What a great job of coming back," the Salisbury coach said of the Panthers' effort. "We were fortunate to have weathered the storm. My hat's off to (Krieger). He gave them a chance to win."

Because no turnstile attendance figure had been kept previously, this year's figure will be listed as a record. The previous record of 18,586, set in 1996 at Maryland's Byrd Stadium, represented the number of all-session tickets sold plus the number of walk-up tickets bought that day, not the number of people at the game. The new paid attendance record, arrived at using that method, was 33,023.

Berkman, a member of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Committee who arrived in Baltimore a day before his team to attend a meeting, spoke of how special it was to have played -- and won -- on an NFL field in the team's home state, something he had spoken to the Sea Gulls about since he found out the game would be held at what was then known as Ravens Stadium.

"When they were riding up here on the bus, I called them and had the bus driver put his microphone up to the phone," he said. "I told them, 'you know how I've been telling you how great this would be?'

"I am standing right here on the faceoff 'X' and let me tell you, it's even better."

Especially when you walk away, trophy in hand.

Championship

Middlebury scoring: Greg Bastis 3, Charley Howe 2, Mike Frissora 2, Andrew Giordano 2, Jonathan Sisto 2, Mike Saraceni 1, Ben Tobey 1.

Salisbury scoring: Josh Bergey 4, Chris Phillips 3, Joe Tamberrino 2, Andy Arnold 2, Scott Simmons 1, Justin Smith 1, Kevin Gemmell 1.

Shots: Middlebury 43, Salisbury 42. Saves: Middlebury-- Eric Krieger 19; Salisbury -- Dan Korpon 12.