Postscript from Stevenson at Salisbury

Sea Gulls' defensive players comfortable with offense getting all the accolades

*Stevenson’s lack of punch of offense may have been exacerbated by the left leg injury that forced Stephen Banick to leave the game in the fourth quarter. The freshman attackman and leading scorer for the Mustangs crumpled to the turf with 12:31 left in regulation after planting his left leg behind the cage and had to be carried off the field with the lower portion of that leg immobilized in a cast. Cantabene said he was still waiting for more details on Banick’s injury, but he declined to use his absence as an excuse. “Obviously, Steve’s such a great player for us and had an unbelievable freshman year,” Cantabene said, referring to Banick’s 63 points on 36 goals and 27 assists. “He goes to the goal so hard and causes so many problems. But it didn’t change our aspect. We just threw [freshman] Michael [Crowe] in there. I was thinking about putting [freshman] Pat Candon in, but he hasn’t played in a while. So I didn’t think he was into the flow of the game as much. Michael was playing really well. So we just threw him in there and we got our best six on the field every time after that. Unfortunately, we lost a real talented player, but yet again, we were put in position to make plays and we didn’t make them. That hurt.”

*Cantabene also questioned the officials’ ruling that senior midfielder Nick Rossi did not score a goal. Trailing 5-1 with 2:08 left in the third quarter, Rossi appeared to have tucked a shot under the crossbar. The ball bounced back into the field of play and despite the Mustangs’ protests, the officials ruled that Rossi did not score and play continued. “I thought the non-call on the goal, that’s a big goal not to call,” Cantabene said. “It was in the net, and we know it was in the net. That was a non-call that hurt. That gets us to 5-2 and maybe things are a little bit different at that point. We don’t have to scramble as much late. They got those last two while we were scrambling. So I thought that was a tough one.