Season Review: New Faces Contribute
SALISBURY, Md. - The Salisbury University men's soccer team suffered some growing pains and some bad breaks during the 2006 season but still managed to end the year 11-5-1, 5-3 Capital Athletic Conference. Although the team did not meet their intended goal of a CAC title they did experience many positives on the field.

"This season we got a chance to play some new players who did some great things. We beat two solid teams in the Esprit DIII Classic, beat a Rochester team who was ranked in the top 10, and had a good win at Roanoke," said SU coach Gerry DiBartolo.

"We have been spoiled over the last two to three years returning starters and All-Americans each year. This season we have tried a number of different line-ups in an attempt to improve the team and style," said DiBartolo.

The line-up mixes didn't seem to work out until midseason against Greensboro College when freshman Kyle Sterling and Justin McGrath were promoted to starters at midfielder and backer respectively. The two freshman helped Salisbury to a 6-3 record down the stretch.

"He [McGrath] gave us a different dimension on defense," said DiBartolo.

Sterling, a Salisbury, Md. native, added four goals when as a starter to go along with two goals off the bench. Sterling's move to midfield sent senior Wijy Jones, All CAC first team member, to the forward position.

"Wijy became more dangerous [at forward]. Opposing coaches became concerned with stopping him because of his natural handling abilities and his speed with the ball at his foot," said DiBartolo.

Jones recorded went on a six-game goal streak where he scored a goal in each six consecutive games. The streak propelled him to tie for the team lead in goals at nine with sophomore Nick Malone. Senior T.J. Nairn and junior David Kroening joined Jones on the 2006 All-CAC first team.

Salisbury suffered a few set backs early in the season as they opened the year with an overtime time tie  against Ursinus College followed by a hard fought double overtime loss to defending conference champion York College (Pa.) and got tripped up by St. Mary's (Md.) College in a conference match.  

"Those kinds of games happen each year. We dominated in stats and played well but couldn’t capitalize on our [goal scoring] opportunities," said DiBartolo.

On the other end of the spectrum there were also a few games that were very competitive but the breaks did not go SU’s way. Salisbury played conference champion York very tight losing in double overtime.

"The [York] game was very competitive as no one team dominated. York just benefited from a break in the second overtime," said DiBartolo.

SU put it together and started to play its best soccer near the end of the season. Salisbury won convincing against Hood putting them away early, 7-1, and beat Marymount in back-to-back games.

"We had better reads offensively, won balls, the line up meshed, the team was motivated to play hard, and matured in an emotional way. I cannot remember playing teams with so many red cards, but our guys kept their cool," said DiBartolo.

The Gulls went on to get knocked out of the CAC tournament for the second straight year by York only this time it was in the second round, 2-0.

Next Year
"We feel real good about the guys we have coming back they have a lot of experience, made it through high and lows and will be a much stronger team. We have a lot of players who contributed significant goals and minutes coming back and feel we have the capability to be very good. I feel that the biggest improvement in a soccer player's college career is between the freshman and sophomore seasons and we have a few guys who should improve significantly. Our goals remain the same going in to next year too, we want to win the CAC title and make it into the NCAA tournament," said DiBartolo.

The soccer future for Salisbury is very bright returning seven starters. The Gulls will also welcome back the team leader in points Nick Malone (nine goals, four assists) as well as first team All-CAC midfielder Kroening. Salisbury is excited with its prospects for 2007 with the hopes to add to its winning tradition.