No. 1 Salisbury ready for No. 5 Gettysburg
SALISBURY, Md. – Something has to give Saturday afternoon as the No. 1 and top-ranked scoring offense in the country, Salisbury University, plays host to the No. 5 and top-ranked scoring defense in the land, Gettysburg College, at Sea Gull Stadium at 2 pm.

“Gettysburg is an extremely talented team,” said SU coach Jim Berkman. “They are always one of the best teams in the south and have a lot of depth from top to bottom. We are going to have to play extremely well.”

The Sea Gulls’ high flying offensive attack is scoring over 21 goals a game while leading the nation in scoring margin at 16.22 goals. Salisbury’s starting attack line of juniors Matt Hickman and Greg Titus along with senior Eric Bishop all rank among the top 25 in points per game as they average 5.25, 4.11 and 4.00 each, respectively.

The Salisbury (10-0) defense is not to be overshadowed as it ranks second in the country in scoring defense. The Sea Gulls allow a mere 4.10 goals per game and has held teams to four or fewer goals in six of the Gulls 10 games.

The unsung hero for Salisbury is face-off specialist Ryan DeRose who ranks ninth in the nation in face-off winning percentage. DeRose is winning nearly 71 percent of his face-offs (98-of-139) and as a team SU ranks sixth. DeRose will have his hands full Saturday as Gettysburg’s senior Jimmy Gates ranks 12th in the country with a 69 percent face-off winning percentage (77-of-115).

When Salisbury has the ball Gettysburg (6-1) will turn to its top-ranked defense which allows on average 3.86 goals per game. Preseason All-American goalie Pat Vaughan ranks in the top five in goals against average (4.07) and saves percentage (.679).

“He [Vaughan] is a great goalie,” said Berkman. “We are going to have to be smart with our shots and our shot selection and not waste any opportunities.”

The Bullet offense is paced by Trip Dyer who has team-highs in goals (15) and assists (7). Ben Sufrin has equaled Dyer’s assist total with seven of his own and Kevin Freehill ranks second on the team with nine goals.

Salisbury holds the series advantage over Gettysburg, 15-5, and has defeated the Bullets the last five-times the two teams have met. The last time Gettysburg beat Salisbury was in 2002 in both the regular season and the NCAA quarterfinals. Last season, the No. 1 Gulls defeated No. 2 Gettysburg 13-7 on the road before a crowd of 3,657.

“Gettysburg is a great program with a great coach,” said Berkman. “If you look at the past eight national championship games the south has been represented by either Gettysburg or us.”