Game Essentials RIT @ Roanoke – Wednesday, March 5 The Roanoke Maroons responded from a 10-9 loss to Cabrini by beating the RIT Tigers at home on Wednesday, March 5th. The Tigers jumped out to a commanding 5-1 lead. The Maroons used a seven goal run by six different players in the second quarter to head into halftime with a 10-6 lead. Not to be outdone, the Tigers took the lead back with 10:14 remaining in the game, 12-11. Roanoke tied it less than a minute later and got the winning goal with 3:03 left. Sophomore attackmen Ashton Hotchkiss (1g, 4a) and Pat March (4g, 3a) filled the void for the injured Zach Thomas for Roanoke. Senior Andrew Ruocco (4g) and sophomore Chris Ferry (2g, 2a) paced the Tigers. This was a solid statement win for Roanoke to hopefully get back on track after the loss to Cabrini. RIT can use it as a great early season contest that won’t really affect their chances of making the NCAA tourney out of the North region. Villa Julie @ Gettysburg, Wednesday March 5 The Villa Julie Mustangs gave the Gettysburg Bullets quite a scare on their home turf. The Bullets needed two goals 11 seconds apart in the final two minutes to pull out the 10-9 victory. Ridgewood native Zach Pucci scored the game winner for Gettysburg with just 1:44 left in the game. This was the ninth year in a row that Gettysburg has won their home opener. "We played a great team game today and should have come away with the win,” said Villa Julie coach Paul Cantabene. ”A few clearing mistakes cost us late, but you have to give credit to Gettysburg; they made the plays to win. When you beat a team in all the statistical categories, you certainly expect to win, but we have to learn how to win the big games and today’s another step in the right direction." This game was a big step for the Villa Julie Mustangs as it was very nearly the program’s best win ever. Granted, a loss is a loss is a loss, but still… ”When you build a program from the bottom up you have to convince your guys that you can play with the best teams in the country,” said Cantabene. ”Our team knows that is possible now." Sea Gull Perch The top-ranked Salisbury University men's lacrosse team broke its NCAA record for consecutive regular season victories on Saturday with a 19-3 win on the road against Widener University. The Sea Gulls have now won 66-straight regular season games dating back to April 17, 2003. Their only loss in this run came to Cortland St. in the 2006 NCAA Championship. The old mark, held by SU for 12 years, started on March 11, 1992 with an 8-5 win over Ohio Wesleyan and ended six years later on March 10, 1997, with a 13-10 Battling Bishops victory. This is the fourth time Salisbury has defeated Widener during the current regular season winning streak. The two teams last squared off in the 2007 NCAA tournament, where the Sea Gulls won 16-8 in the second round. The Sea Gulls are a perfect 92-0 in Capital Athletic Conference play all-time. .500 – “I think we’re going to have a great man-up unit this year,” said coach Jim Berkman about a month ago. So far the Salisbury man- up unit has converted on 17 of 34 opportunities. The Sea Gulls are 63-0 since April 2003. The Sea Gulls have won 28 straight games. 34 straight – While no official stat is kept for Division III, the Sea Gulls won the first 34 face-offs against Hood on Wednesday, en route to a 36-for-37 day. 19 – SU senior Ryan Brown was a perfect 19-for-19 on face-offs. Sophomore Ryan Finch was just behind him going 17-for-18. 27 – The number of players that have registered at least one point for Salisbury so far this season. Hood College, the team Salisbury defeated 29-5 on Wednesday, only has 23 players on its roster; 19 different players scored against Hood for the Sea Gulls. On the fly 2006 – Was the last time that Gettysburg midfielder Jared Harriman (second-team AA in ’06) and goalie Charlie Floeckher (first-team All-NCAC as a Kenyon College sophomore in ’06) played in a regulation game. Harriman notched two goals on four shots. Floeckher made three saves on only eight shots on goal while allowing Hampden-Sydney to score just five goals. Both might be the key pieces in Gettsyburg’s success this year as they try to replace Pat Vaughan and find the midfield stud they lacked last year. Overtime – Whittier College has jumped to a 5-0 start, but needed overtime to beat Brigham Young (the 2007 Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association – Club – champion), 15-14. We’ll find out soon enough if Whittier is back at their 2003 form when the Poets made the DIII Final Four. The Ithaca College Bombers are making their spring break trip and face the Poets on Monday, March 10. Colorado College also needed overtime in two games as they beat Colorado and Colorado State, both traditional Club powerhouses. 10 – Most points scored in one game. So far three players have done it: Haverford’s Brian Fleishacker (7g, 3a vs. FDU-Florham on 3/01), Villa Julie’s Steve Kazimer (9g, 1a vs. Messiah on 3/01), and Adrian’s Ryan Knautz (6g, 4 a vs. Christopher Newport on 2/27). Three other players have scored nine points in one game so far. 3 – It’s the third year in a row that Messiah College has started out 0-3. They’ve managed to turn it around the past two years going from 0-4 to 10-6 in ’06 and then 0-3 to 11-5 in ’07. 12 – The number of penalties pre-season #2 Roanoke had in their 10-9 loss to Cabrini at home. 27 – The number of saves Curry College got from senior goalie Alex MacMillan in a losing effort to Roger Williams, 12-5 on Wednesday afternoon. Question Marks? A big question for the Villa Julie Mustangs in the preseason, according to head coach Paul Cantabene, was whether or not former JUCO All-American Steve Kazimer could shake off the rust after a couple of injury-plagued years. He answered those questions with five goals and two assists against St. Mary’s and nine goals and one assist against Messiah to rank second in the country in points per game (6.7) and first in goals per game (5.0). Training Room Villa Julie – Sophomore Jimmy Dailey – As a freshman, Dailey led the Mustangs in scoring with 60 points. Dailey was one of only three non-Salisbury players to make the All-CAC first team in ’07. He was off to a good start this year with a goal and three assists in a 13-10 win over St. Mary’s, an important league win, until he dislocated his shoulder and tore some supporting muscles. Dailey is out for the season. So far the Mustangs have been able to fill the void with some young talent and are living up to the pre-season hype. Stevens Tech – Senior J.R. Oreskovich is no longer listed on the Stevens Tech roster after two All-American seasons and finishing second in the country in total points with 100 in 2006 (55g, 45a). A week into the preseason, J.R. tore his ACL. He underwent surgery shortly after and is currently redshirting while helping on the sidelines as much as he can. This is bad news for the Ducks’ first year in the Empire 8, but may not be all that bad for J.R. The California native was in school for five years anyway, pursuing a mechanical engineering degree. Now the young Stevens team has a chance to rebuild this year and then next year will get J.R. back, putting them in a good position for 2009. Don’t count them out in ’08 just yet. They just gave Cortland a run for their money in a 9-7 loss and will be right there in the competitive, yet wide open, Empire 8. Games of the week

Lynchburg @ Haverford, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…It’s rare that a loss is that meaningful for a team, but playing Salisbury to a one-goal game is quite an accomplishment. Lynchburg was highly touted coming into the season and has done it’s share to back that up. Haverford was also generating quite some talk. This could be a game that determines some at-large bids come May.

Saint Lawrence @ Cortland, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…This will be the fifth time the seniors at these two schools have played each other. So far Cortland has won that battle, winning three of the four. Don’t think St. Lawrence doesn’t remember how their dream season ended last year at the hands of Cortland in the NCAAs.

Washington College @ Washington and Lee, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…WAC only beat Wesley by a goal. They handily beat an under-rated Virginia Wesleyan team and destroyed Kean. W&L lost to Colorado College. A big in-region game that may help or hurt tournament chances down the road.

Geneseo St. @ Nazareth, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…Naz has a lot to replace from last year, but is still Naz. A close win over Springfield shows they might be right back there. This game will have North implications.

Hartwick @ Western New England, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…Upset watch. Last year WNEC needed overtime to top a Hartwick team that finished 6-8.

Denison @ Gettysburg, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…Expect a defensive battle. Denison hasn’t played anyone yet, so the jury is still out on them.

Roanoke @ St. Mary’s (MD), Saturday, March 8th, 12:00 pm…Don’t count out Roanoke yet. It’s only the third game of the season, but a loss here could be tough to overcome. Roanoke eeked out a one-goal win in ’07.

Middlebury @ Bates, Saturday, March 8th, 2:00 pm…What better way to get started up North than by jumping straight into a NESCAC match-up? This is Bates’ third game, and also the third ’07 tournament team they’ve played.

Kenyon @ Dickinson, Saturday, March 8th, 1:00 pm…Both teams have traded victories the past two years. Both schools cross recruit similar kids and have been on the cusp of taking that next step.

Ohio Wesleyan @ Salisbury, Sunday, March 9th, 1:00 pm…Critics knock Salisbury’s schedule, but they play six 2007 NCAA Tournament teams before April.

Wesleyan @ Endicott, Monday, March 10th, 4:00 pm…Both teams are better than they were last year, and they were both pretty good. This is just Wesleyan’s second game. Major Northern region implications.

RPI @ Colorado College, Monday, March 10th, 7:00 pm…The Colorado College Tigers went up early on W&L and never looked back, out shooting the Generals 43-34 and going a perfect 21-for-21 clearing the ball. RPI has started slow but has the best shot of knocking off St. Lawrence in the Liberty League.

Ithaca @ Whittier, Monday, March 10th, 2:00 pm…Ithaca traditionally plays lesser teams closer than they would like early in the season. Whitter is 5-0 against two DII teams and three club teams. Both teams can score in bunches, whether or not against varsity opponents is yet to be seen.

Western New England @ Cortland, Tuesday, March 11th, 3:30 pm…Since May 6, 2006, WNEC has lost only one game, a 12-10 quarterfinal showdown to Cortland. Both are frontrunners in the North again.

Ohio Wesleyan @ Gettysburg, Wednesday, March 12th, 3:00 pm…Need a reason to love DIII lacrosse? They still play meaningful mid-week games.