And then there were four.
A riveting Division III men’s season is nearing its conclusion, though the four teams left standing for the NCAA semifinals are hardly a surprise — they’ve been at or near the top of the D-III hierarchy since the beginning of the season.
Continue below to see which teams are advancing to Sunday’s national semis.
SALISBURY 12, WASHINGTON AND LEE 9
Folks who checked out a third of the way through the third quarter might have thought Salisbury was going to run away with this one, but Washington and Lee put up a staunch fight late. Still, the Generals didn’t have enough to overcome the deficit.
Cross Ferrara scored four times, Jack Dowd scored three times and Jude Brown led all scorers with five points (one goal, four assists), as the Gulls topped W&L 12-9. Nicholas Ransom made 11 saves.
Alex Brown had a hat trick for the Generals, who also got 14 saves from Warren Seeds.
Salisbury led 9-3 after a four-goal run spanning the final 24 seconds of the first half and the first 5:23 of the third quarter. Washington and Lee had struggled offensively to that point, but it picked up the page facing the six-goal deficit.
The Generals buried five of the game’s next six goals to cut it to 10-8, but goals from Luke Nestor and Ferrara were enough to squash the comeback attempt with five minutes left.
RIT 16, MIDDLEBURY 6
This one was all RIT essentially from the start. Middlebury struggled offensively, failing to score consecutive goals until the final goal of the third period and the first goal of the fourth. That gave RIT the opportunity to bury the Panthers early.
Luke Pilcher had five goals and one assist, Seth Grottenthaler had one goal and four assists and Spencer Bell had a hat trick in the Tigers’ 16-6 win.
The Panthers’ inability to generate consistent offense was in large part due to the efforts of the RIT defense. Will Sterrett made 12 saves in 57:03, then Kyle Gaffey made another two saves in the 2:57 of relief work.
Middlebury actually held a 41-34 shot advantage.