Newly-minted No. 1 Stevenson has had a few days to digest the program's first Capital Athletic Conference Tournament championship, which the Mustangs claimed on Saturday when they defeated No. 3 Salisbury, 10-6, and prevented the Sea Gulls from winning their 16th consecutive tournament crown.
"I think that's a pretty good landmark for the program, and to knock off a school that had won it 15 straight years, that's another huge accomplishment for us," Stevenson coach Paul Cantabene said. "They're such a great program and they have such a great mystique about them and such a great tradition that it's really tough to go in there and win that game. We're feeling great about it, but we also know that we have more work to do, and we look forward to that."
Cantabene said one key was the defense's handcuffing of a Salisbury offense that has averaged 17 goals prior to Saturday's contest. The six goals scored by the Sea Gulls were the lowest since March 16, 2008 when they beat Denison, 6-3.
Cantabene said the defense got a boost from the play of senior goalkeeper Geoff Hebert (13 saves) and senior defenseman Evan Douglass, who caused seven turnovers, collected four groundballs, and limited Salisbury sophomore midfielder Sam Bradman to one goal on 1-of-9 shooting.
"With Evan, you don't have to slide to him," Cantabene said of Douglass, who missed the final three quarters of the teams' first meeting on April 3 when he suffered a bruised lung and bruised ribs after absorbing a shot. "He took Bradman right out of the game, and he only got one goal on account of a substitution type of play. And Geoff makes the shooters think. He takes up a lot of the cage, so having those two guys for that game was huge for us. The whole team felt very confident going into that game."
The Mustangs (16-1) have one more regular-season contest before learning their seeding in the NCAA Tournament, and Cantabene said he wants the team to treat the home finale against No. 14 Denison (9-2) on Saturday as a game of significance.
"We're telling them it's still a playoff game for us this Saturday," he said. "We have some unfinished business still. We want to get the top seed in the NCAA Tournament, and hopefully winning that game gives us another regional win. They need to win that game, I think, to get in and really solidify their place in the NCAA Tournament. For us, it's just to keep getting better. It's another playoff game for us, and we're going to address it that way."