REVIEW

The good: A program that has captured eight national championships is usually judged by adding similar hardware. Even though that didn’t pan out after a 9-6 loss to Tufts in the NCAA title game, the Sea Gulls – by many accounts – thrived. The team won 21 of 23 contests, defeated Capital Athletic Conference rival Stevenson twice, and made its seventh appearance in the last eight national finals – a welcome reversal from last season when the squad failed to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2002. "It was a good year for us," coach Jim Berkman said. "We beat Stevenson twice, we beat Gettysburg, we beat Cortland. We won four games against three of the top four teams in the country, and it was a good year. We won some close games, and we got better as the season went on." … Sam Bradman lived up to his billing. The heir apparent to Kylor Berkman who became the first player to be named the National Midfielder of the Year three times, Bradman, a sophomore, exploded to lead the offense in goals (58) and points (86). His reward? The National Midfielder of the Year award. "Sam Bradman had a breakout season," Jim Berkman said. "He’s a special player, and he made everybody around him better." … Like Bradman, Johnny Rodriguez emerged as one of the team’s go-to players. The junior goalkeeper set career highs in both goals-against average (7.14) and save percentage (.588) en route to being named to the All-American second team. "I thought Johnny Rodriguez towards the end of the season was as good as any goalie in the country," Berkman said. "I thought he played unbelievable, and what’s exciting is that he’ll be returning next year for his senior season and hopefully find the same consistency that he had finished the season with. You’ve got to have great goalie play to become a champion. We’re real excited about the way he’s matured into a truly outstanding goalie at the end of the season."

The bad: The loss to the Jumbos in the national championship was haunting in that the offense was out of sync. Simple passes were either dropped or thrown away from teammates, and players began to force things due to the deficit. Berkman said the offense’s performance evoked shades of the team’s 10-6 loss to Stevenson in the CAC Tournament final. "A lot of it looked like the way we had played the second half against Stevenson," he said. "We took the first shot, we were impatient, we forced things. We just decided to do it at the wrong time." … Like many other teams, Salisbury was plagued by injuries to several key players including sophomore defenseman Andrew Sellers (seven games missed due to an injured knee), senior attackman Jake DeLillo (one game – high ankle sprain), senior face-off specialist Ryan Finch (two games – pulled hamstring) and freshman attackman Eric Law (15 games – broken collarbone). The team still fared well, but the injuries had an effect on team cohesion. "It definitely affects your ability when you lose a kid that athletic and when you lose a kid that probably would have been your fourth attackman, it definitely doesn’t make you as deep," Berkman said. "Even though we were able to overcome that and still get to the championship game, as a coach, you always wonder, ‘What if that guy had been there? What would have happened?’ So that’s always in the back of your mind. But we were fortunate to have some good depth, which has always been a characteristic of our program. Some other guys stepped up."

PREVIEW

Personnel changes: The offense bids farewell to midfielder Mike Von Kamecke (40 goals and 30 assists) and attackmen DeLillo (43, 22) and Mike Winter (53, 7). Ordinarily, that might cripple a team, but Berkman sounded confident that the team had enough depth to find suitable replacements. "We’ve got a couple guys waiting in the wings," he said. "[Junior attackman] Erik Krum sat out this year [because of knee surgery], and he would have been in the mix with those guys. There are a couple of other attackmen waiting in the wings to play, and there are a couple of middies that are going to be pretty good." … The graduation of long-stick midfielder and second-team All American Connor Burgasser (54 groundballs and 45 caused turnovers) and defenseman Jeff Breeding (20 groundballs and 21 caused turnovers) opens the door for sophomore Evan Hockel (42 groundballs) and Sellers (19 groundballs and 16 caused turnovers), respectively. But Berkman sounded more concerned about filling the void created by the departures of short-stick defensive midfielders Will Poletis (7, 1; 35 groundballs and 16 caused turnovers) and Kevin Finn (5, 3; 26 groundballs and 16 caused turnovers). "Our biggest thing is going to be replacing the D-middies – Poletis and Finn – because those two had outstanding seasons," Berkman said. "They were really the unsung heroes of our team." Juniors Brandon Gonzalez and Dean Rossi – who was ahead of Finn on the depth chart in the preseason before breaking his hand and sitting out this past season – are the primary candidates for promotion. … The graduation of Finch (7, 5; 146 groundballs and 211-of-349 for a 60.5 percentage) would be traumatic, but sophomore Kyle Gallagher (1, 7; 52 groundballs and 78-of-154 for a 50.6 percentage) could be poised to step in and start at the face-off X immediately.

Forecast for 2011: Sunny. Finding weapons on has rarely been an issue with the Sea Gulls and even with the graduation hits, that unit should continue to thrive. The defense is sound and if Gallagher can produce as Finch did, the team should continue to challenge the likes of Stevenson, Gettysburg, Haverford, Cortland and Tufts for Division III supremacy.