PHILADELPHIA — Gordon Mann and I are at Lincoln Financial Field at the Division III men’s lacrosse championships. Salisbury leads Cortland State 7-6 at the half.
It’s a nice, hot, sunny, hot day here at the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, where the lower bowl is about three-quarters full. It’s been a back-and-forth game, but the Sea Gulls, winners of 69 consecutive games, took the lead late in the second quarter. Mike Felice has two goals and two assists for Cortland, while Jimmy Creighton and Matt Dasinger each have two goals for the Sea Gulls.
The game is broadcast on CSTV for those watching at home. Back down to the field.
Hey, Pat, have you become a LAX fan? 😉
More today than yesterday.
Gordon Mann is sitting next to me and is typing a long message. I’ll let him do the talking. 🙂
Cortland 13 Salisbury 12 OT
Mike Felice scores an unassisted goal with two seconds left in overtime to give the Red Dragons their second National championship and first in Division III. Cortland won the Division II 1975 title.
The Red Dragons scored on a fluky goal with less than a minute in regulation to force overtime when the goalie misplayed a bouncing ball that seemed harmless.
The win caps an amazing story for Cortland Head Coach Rick Barnes who took over this program on an interim basis this year. As a high school teacher in a school near Cortland, he planned for this to be his only year.
Since two of the national champs — Keith Greene and Greg Stewart — play football at Cortland, we’ll have more coverage later this week on D3football.com.
To coin a cliche, “How the mighty have fallen.” Cortland did it.
At the same time, Salisbury’s win streak was something else again ….
http://www.pictureprints.net/photographers.php?photographer=D3sports
First set of photos posted.
Wow–23,990 fans in attendance, and a 13-paragraph story in the New York Times. Not too shabby. I’d like to see 23,990 at the hoops championship game!
Especially considering that article gave one sentence to the D-II game, which involved a Long Island team.
I think if they held the D-III title game in the same city as the D-I final four, on the off day in between, in a doubleheader with the D-II title game, you might see it happen. However, it seems unlikely Division III presidents would elect to lengthen the season two weeks to make that possible. It’s less of a problem in lacrosse because in most cases, schools have graduated by this point.
I think that format works better for a “niche” sport like lacrosse than it would for basketball or football. Lacrosse fans act as promoters of their sport and therefore support any level going on in front of them.
I’ve always thought the Division III ice hockey championship should pair up with the Division I Frozen Four, for the same reasons. Of course extending the already long hockey season becomes an issue.
Well, would the season have to be lengthened? Is it possible to move down the season (start the season a week and a half later tp only lengthen the season half a week)? 2,018 were in attendance for the women’s d3 national title game, and playing in an arena that seats 20,000 or more would be quite the experience for a D3 final four.
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