There will be a new champion in NCAA Division III men’s lacrosse. Amherst beat archrival Williams 12-8 to advance to the championship game for the first time and Cabrini knocked off longtime nemesis Salisbury, 16-13, to earn its first trip to the finals.

Cabrini won’t have to travel far for Sunday’s championship game. Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field is less than 30 miles from its Radnor, Pa., campus.

Sunday’s win was an unlikely one for the Cavaliers. Salisbury beat Cabrini 13-5 in early March and the Seagulls ended Cabrini’s season in the NCAA tournament five times, most recently in 2017.

Cabrini’s only previous win against Salisbury was an 11-10 overtime win in the regular season in 2017, but on Sunday the Cavaliers showed no fear.

Cabrini scored the first three goals of the game and Jordan Krug had three goals in the opening quarter as the Cavaliers jumped out to a 6-2 lead.

Salisbury answered in the second quarter, putting together a five-goal run at one point, but Krug’s goal with 57 seconds left in the half turned some momentum back towards Cabrini, which trailed 9-8 at halftime.

Cabrini’s Robert Cressman scored early in the third quarter to tie the game at 9-9 and the teams traded goals until the Cavaliers strung together three straight goals in the fourth quarter to take a 15-12 lead on Krug’s goal with 5:16 left.

Salisbury’s Tyler Sndyer scored with 2:01 left to get the Gulls back within two, but Cabrini won the faceoff and Krug iced the victory with his seventh goal of the game.

Krug was simply magnificent, adding an assist, and scoring his seven goals on just eight shots.

Cross Ferrera led Salisbury with three goals.
 

Earlier in the day, Amherst blew an early 4-0 lead, but showed resolve, outscoring Williams 5-0 in the final quarter to earn a trip to Philadelphia.

Fueled by its 4-0 start to the game, Amherst led 6-4 at halftime, but Williams controlled the third quarter and took an 8-7 on Kevin Stump’s goal with just 13 seconds left in the quarter.

Any momentum was short-lived as Amherst’s Jon Coffey scored just 55 seconds into the quarter and Matt Solberg added another just 53 seconds later to give the Mammoths a 9-8 lead.

Amherst’s defense limited Williams to just five shots in the final quarter, only one of which was on goal, and the Mammoths tacked on three more goals for the win.

Colin Minicus had five points for Amherst (3g, 2a) and Coffey and Solberg each scored twice. Gib Versfeld made eight saves for the win.

Stump had three goals and an assist for Williams and Harry Gahagan made 12 saves.