WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -Before Sherm Wood sat down for his postgame session with reporters in a Betzler Field locker room, Salisbury's football coach muttered a few words he might want to hang on to.
"Boy, those [King's College] kids played hard," said Wood, the Sea Gulls' fourth-year coach. "If anything, we learned a whole lot from this." Two things come to mind: be sure to cash in when scoring opportunities materialize, and make certain the special teams remain error-free.
Salisbury (9-2) learned plenty of both yesterday in the opening round of the NCAA Division III tournament during a 28-0 loss to the host Monarchs.
King's (9-2) will move into next weekend's second round against second-ranked Bridgewater (10-0), which received a first-round bye.
Salisbury, which reached the postseason for the first time since 1986, needed two plays from scrimmage - quarterback Dustin Johnson's 41-yard scamper with an option keeper and Reggie Boyce's 5-yard run - to reach the King's 17 and put itself in position to score.
Never happened.
On two subsequent possessions, one deep in the first half and the other late in the third quarter, the Sea Gulls punched the ball inside the red zone and came up empty. Salisbury had seven plays inside the King's 10 late in the first half and could not score.
The Sea Gulls out-gained King's 262-249.
"The red zone, third downs. ... I don't want to take anything away from their defense, but we didn't execute in key situations," said Boyce, the Dunbar grad who rushed for 117 yards. "From 20 to 20, we moved the ball. When we got to the red zone, we made some key mistakes."
Key mistakes also hurt the Salisbury punt team, including one late in the opening quarter, when Kamau Woolard blocked Rick Nistler's kick and the ball skipped to the flank. Derek Zambino picked it up and raced 43 yards for a 7-0 lead.
Sandwiched around the Monarchs' block were a couple of bad snaps. Nistler threw incomplete after dropping a second-half snap but was bailed out when King's was flagged for a personal foul.
By that time, Salisbury had surrendered an 11-yard scoring pass from David Hessler to Geoff Ashton and been turned away for a second time by the King's defense. When the Sea Gulls failed to cash in a third time, the Monarchs pounced.
Richard Jackson, who rushed for 134 yards on 32 carries, swept right from 5 yards out to score. Then, with 3:26 left, Hessler passed 31 yards to Ryan Gennaro in the left corner of the end zone.
Salisbury 0 0 0 0 - 0
King's 7 6 0 15 - 28
First quarter Kin-Zambino 43 blocked-punt return (VonTanhausen kick), 4:48. Second quarter Kin-Ashton 11 pass from Hessler (kick failed), 12:09. Fourth quarter Kin-Jackson 5 run (Gennaro run), 9:24. Kin-Gennaro 31 pass from Hessler (VonTanhausen kick), 3:26. A-1,600.
Sal Kin
First downs 11 14
Rushes-yards 46-188 49-184
Passing 74 65
Comp-Att-Int 6-21-2 5-17-0
Return Yards 0 64
Punts-Avg. 7-31.3 7-30.4
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2
Penalties-Yards 11-77 9-74
Time of Possession 29:52 30:08
Rushing-Salisbury, Boyce 19-117, D. Johnson 16-65, Ellis 8-13, Pashkevich 2-0, Nistler 1-(minus 7). King's, Pa., Jackson 32-134, Hessler 9-34, Novia 5-19, Team 3-(minus 3). Passing-Salisbury, D. Johnson 6-21-2 74. King's, Pa., Hessler 5-17-0 65. Receiving-Salisbury, Hinz 3-27, Wills 1-41, Belt 1-4, Williams 1-2. King's, Pa., Gennaro 1-31, Dickey 1-12, Ashton 1-11, Novia 1-7, Jackson 1-4.