Greensboro played well in their season opener, but were no match for a Salisbury team that began its national title defense with a 19-6 victory. The Pride fought hard from the opening whistle and battled tough throughout, despite the sub-freezing temperatures.
Defense dominated most of the opening quarter, as neither team made a breakthrough until the 11:34 mark, when Salisbury took a 1-0 lead. Greensboro held the majority of possession through the quarter and found the equalizing goal with just over five minutes remaining in the half. The Sea Gulls finally found their offensive stroke with under four minutes to go and reeled off four goals before the end of the period to take a 5-1 lead.
Salisbury continued their strong play to open the second, scoring two more goals before Nicholas Lusardi found the back of the net for The Pride. Greensboro also locked down defensively following Salisbury’s second goal of the period, holding them scoreless for nearly eight minutes, but two late goals gave the Sea Gulls a 9-2 lead at half.
Jaeger Carlyle scored his second goal of the game to start the second half, but it was all Salisbury until the end of the period after that. Greensboro refused to go down without a fight, however, and saved their best quarter for last. Thomas Brooks, Justin Pearson, and Bill Blakely all scored in the fourth quarter, while The Pride defense only allowed four goals.
Pearson and Blakely each added an assist to their goal, as they both recorded two points, and Zach Frohne added the final assist, as Blakely’s goal was unassisted. Goalkeeper Mitchell Kanowicz led the team in groundballs with ten, while recording 13 saves. Skip Jakupi tallied seven groundballs and James Furlow had five.
The Pride will be back in action on Saturday as they travel to take on Wesley College. Greensboro will return home the following Saturday for a match against Virginia Wesleyan. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.