Men's Lacrosse
Men's Lacrosse: Upset bid falls just short at #1 Salisbury
Dan Maude scored two of Denison's three goals against #1 Salisbury.
Date: March 16, 2008
Location: SALISBURY, Md.
After three quarters the Big Red found themselves locked in a 3-3 tie with the nation's top-ranked team, Salisbury University. The fourth quarter would be a different story as the Sea Gulls would control the face-off circle and score three unanswered goals to close out the 6-3 win on Sunday on the eastern shore of Maryland.
Holding Salisbury to six goals is something the Big Red can surely hang their hats on. The Gulls entered the match averaging an astounding 20 goals per game (137 goals in 7 games). Their six-goal output was the lowest by a Salisbury team since scoring five goals in an NCAA Quarterfinal loss to Gettysburg in 2002.
Junior Dan Maude (Wayne, Pa./Haverford School) scored the only goal of the first quarter with just under one minute to play off an assist by Topher Nazaruk (Stratford, Conn./Fairfield Prep). Salisbury's Matt Hickman and Kyle Burto would score back-to-back goals but with 2:37 left in the first half Maude would score his 11th goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 heading to the third quarter.
Just three minutes into the second half the Big Red would regain the lead after Nick Jacobs (Wilmington, Del./Tower Hill) slipped a shot past Salisbury goalie Riley Clark. The goal by Jacobs would be the last score for Denison as Greg Titus would score three of the following four goals for Salisbury to secure the win.
It was a heated contest evident by the 20 penalties which resulted in 16 total penalty minutes. DU was 1-for-11 in extra-man situations while Salisbury finished 0-for-9. The Sea Gulls won 9-of-12 face-off's and finished with 38 ground balls to Denison's 25. They also outshot DU 40-32.
Denison goalie Alex Baruch (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher's) continued his strong play with 15 saves in 60 minutes. Clark ended with 17 saves for Salisbury.
Denison is 3-2 with both defeats coming to the nation's top-two ranked teams. They will open North Coast Athletic Conference play on March 26 at Wittenberg University.