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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPSMay 27, 2012Steve BevilleMike TotaGreg WrightBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Salisbury – 14 THE MODERATOR: We have head coach Steve Beville, to his right, Greg Wright on the far end, Mike Tota. We'll start off with an opening statement from our head coach, and then we'll go with questions for the student‑athletes. The first two minutes will be exclusively for the student‑athletes. COACH BEVILLE: Congratulations to Salisbury and the Seagulls for knocking us off and winning the title. It was a great game. I'm very proud of our guys. We hung in there. I just thought that Salisbury kept the offensive pressure on and made a few more plays than we did. Offensively Bradman was the difference maker in the game and proved his Player of the Year status with his performance today. Other than that, it was an unbelievable season for us. We broke a lot of team word records this year. We had one of the greatest seasons in Cortland history today, and we ran into a very good game in Salisbury today, and my hat's off to them. Q. I think you trimmed the lead down to 11:10 with two and change in the fourth quarter, what happened after that? MIKE TOTA: We were confident at that point that we'd be able to get on the board some more times and eventually take the lead. It just came down to them making more plays, like coach said. Their offense scored a few really nice goals and their defense tightened up and they were able to keep us off the board. So the fourth quarter didn't go exactly as planned for us. But hats off to Salisbury. They made plays unaccounted and a lot of clutch goals and clutch defensive plays that they made that we didn't make today. Q. Greg, how tough was it all second half of the second quarter fighting from behind? GREG WRIGHT: Yeah, it was kind of a familiar feeling that happened to us in the semifinal against Tufts. We knew if we could just keep it close going into the half, pump the brakes a little bit, take our time at halftime, and come out and explore in the third quarter, we'd have a good chance of mounting a comeback. We did that. We brought it back to 7‑7. It was back and forth in the second half. Like Coach Mike said, they just made a couple more plays. Q. Did you guys think it was a challenge going up against this team? STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Absolutely. Any time you take the field you're taking on a challenge many we just happened to go against the top ranked defense as far as goals against goes in the nation. We felt we had something to prove going into the game. We were obviously unable to come out on top, but we fought hard and made some nice plays. We had some good offense throughout the game. We just weren't able to make enough. Q. You scored a couple of really nice goals in transition early. One of your goals early in the third quarter was unsettled as well. It seemed that they adjusted after that and were just taking off like crazy from that point on. Is that what you guys saw too? STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Yeah, we pride ourselves in our transition offense. We were fortunate to get a couple of those today. I think they made some good adjustments. They realized how dangerous we can be. Credit their offensive middies for getting back in the hole, and their defenders for stepping up. Q. Are you friends with Coach Berkman, and did you talk to him at all? COACH BEVILLE: Who? Q. Berkman, sorry. After he had his heart attack, did you guys visit at all during the season? COACH BEVILLE: I talked to him a couple of times pretty much during the year. First thing I'm trying to do is get him to play us in the regular season, which he never does. You can put that one in there. Maybe he finally will if it gets in the press. Yeah, I did. I reached out to him after he had his episode there and wished him all the best. We're competitors and we get after each other pretty good when our teams play each other. I've known Jim for a long time, even since I was a player and he was a first year assistance coach. When I was playing at Washington, he was an assistant at Salisbury. So we go back. I was just very happy that he was able to get things under control and his health is doing much better now. So I'm glad for Jim. Q. Your problem at the X today I think was critical when you get a team that's that potent in those extra possessions. Did you think that was a big key in this game? COACH BEVILLE: I thought we fought and scrapped. Granelli's numbers were better than ours. Nick has scrapped all year and been more than competent during our season. Tyler just happens to be probably the top face‑off guy. I guess he was named the top face‑off guy in Division III and there is a reason for it. He's very good. Any time you give Salisbury that many possessions you hit it on the head with all those seniors they have. Obviously, led by Sam. Clarke is a junior, but Carter had a real nice game for them. Cannone stepped up and had a couple of goals. Mendes possessed the ball well for them. So they took advantage of the opportunities and made a few more plays than we did. And, yeah, it was a key. I didn't think it was the difference in the game, but it certainly helped them. They outpossessed us with their work on ground balls as well. They were just quicker to the ball many times on the D Bs, particularly on their offensive end after we created a loose ball and they missed a shot. So I thought that was a big part of the game as well today. Q. Could you talk about your in‑game adjustments on Sam Bradman? I know he really went off in the first half and tried to contain him in the second half. Lantz Carter had a good half. What were your thoughts there? COACH BEVILLE: Well, Sam got off quickly. I think he had three of the first four, if I'm not mistaken. We just made the decision that we really had to do something. Put a shorty on him and shut him off. That helped a little bit. I thought the big difference was the amount of picking they did today. Their pick game, their pick‑and‑roll game was on. Sam's unbelievably dangerous at it. He's played backs all his life. Spent a lot of summer playing backs. He is very, very good with the pick‑and‑roll game. So even when he shut off, it gives you some problems health‑wise to step out and jam the ball carrier. We left the roll open a couple times. We got out far defensively and weren't able to contain the role. Defense was pushed out a little too far. We mixed it up and tried some different things with Sam. We're not a zone team. I think we played zone only one time during the whole game. We rely on our physical man‑to‑man defense, and Salisbury was up to the task today. Q. Early in the week Tyler Granelli said he was cut from the team the fall after his sophomore year. Was that a tough decision to make? COACH BEVILLE: No, and I'm not going into detail on that. Q. This is like the fourth time in the history of the tournament in all divisions that two unseeded teams met each other. Somebody had to lose today. You talked about just the accomplishment of this team. Can you remember that in the wake of this or does the loss mar everything for you? COACH BEVILLE: No, no, of course not. They're going to go down in the records as one of the great teams in Cortland history. They had more wins in one season, more consecutive wins in one season. They played for a national title. They played their hearts out. This team played their hearts out today, and Salisbury made more plays than we did. Not that many more, but they did. I told our guys in the locker room, there is something wrong with you if it doesn't bother you. It should irritate you and it should bother you that you lost in the championship game. We didn't play as well as we could have, but they put it out there. They played their hearts out, and I thought gave everything they had. They're going to keep their heads high. We're very proud of the team. I know the guys are proud of each other. They're a tight team, and a lot of returning players. We're going to miss our seniors, but we have a lot less seniors than these guys do. I think we look forward to next year and the opportunity to get back here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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