By Taylor Konyk
Elm Staff Writer
6-0. That’s not a score, it’s a record. Or at least 6-0 is the record as it stands so far. Over spring break the Washington College Shoremen defeated Wesley, Catholic, and Ohio Wesleyan to improve their record by three wins.
The first two games over break were more or less cake walks, outscoring Wesley 14-5 and Catholic 18-3, but the final game versus Ohio Wesleyan was closer with an 8-7 score. Had it not been for choice goaltending the Shoremen’s perfect season would have come to end. Junior Ted DiSalvo’s efforts made the difference in the Thursday afternoon matinee.
“My defensemen do a great job helping me focus, they are all really talented and I wouldn’t be half the goalie without them. They let me see the shots I have a chance at saving. They make my job easy,” said DiSalvo after the string of spring break games.
Unlike games prior, the Shoremen trailed in the ground balls column. Until now, that has been their method of domination, but after trailing 34-25, they needed to depend on other areas to pull some weight.
The defense played well—but they matched the play of their opponent clearing the ball up field the same number of times.
DiSalvo faced the pressure of trailing in the game twice despite seeing his offense putting up a 3-2 lead in the first half.
“I spend a lot of time just trying to focus. Not getting too high or too low, just trying to stay ready for the unpredictable. I used to get really hyped up but it seems I would become too jumpy so I spent pregame trying to focusing on the job at hand,” said DiSalvo on dealing with pregame pressure.
Near the finale of the match senior Michael Pierandri took a 30 second pushing penalty that put the Shoremen in a tough position. Time would expire before Ohio Wesleyan could tie the score, but not without two stellar saves from DiSalvo.
Nearly half way through the 2013 season, WC is staying focused, and it’s showing. Keeping an eye on Salisbury—because War on the Shore is lurking—the Shoremen have fared well against teams that have ousted our nemesis.
WC jumped to #5 in the USILA national rankings, and #5 on Lacrossmagazine.com’s rankings—ahead of Salisbury, Washington and Lee, and Gettysburg.
Expect the rankings to change, because the NCAA did not take into account the Shoremen’s last two victories.
Though the Shoremen have achieved substantial success this season, they still have their work cut out for them. They cut it close with Ohio Wesleyan by getting outworked on ground balls, and trailing in shots—domination in those categories is a key to success. Defense and goaltending is working like a well-oiled machine by making saves and clearing balls, but the team had 21 turnovers overall.
The Shoremen also failed to capitalize on five man-up situations, scoring just once in their six total opportunities.
Regardless of the problem areas, WC got the job done and leaned on new areas to help them seal the victory. It seems that when the going gets tough, the Shoremen get tougher, and with the stellar play of DiSalvo there’s nothing stopping this team from achieving great things.