When I spoke with Jim Berkman on Thursday morning while his team was preparing for its trip to Gettysburg for Saturday's cataclysm, he had an idea of what was going to win the game between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in men's Division III.

"I think the team that has a few more ground balls, the team that has a few more possessions, and the team that makes fewer mistakes that generates shots and doesn't have turnovers will be the team that wins the game on Saturday," said Berkman.

Other than the run-on sentence, this may sound like pretty obvious stuff in light of the final score. But Berkman's prediction nearly didn't come true.

Despite dominating in ground balls and face-offs for much of the game, it took a monumental comeback - and a bit of a Gettysburg collapse - for the top-ranked Sea Gulls to pull out the 11-8 victory.

After ceding the first goal of the game, Gettysburg quickly put Salisbury on what lacrosse savant Quint Kessenich would call "Upset Alert" by scoring the next six goals and chasing Salisbury starting goalie Riley Clark.

[Quick sidenote: Anyone catch Kessenich covering the NCAA wrestling championships on ESPN? As a University of Iowa grad I'm mandated to watch them, but I was impressed with Kessenich's versatility, especially chasing down guys who absolutely loathe interviews. I know he's done wrestling before, but Quint's turning into a true Renaissance Man. And go Hawkeyes.].

Pulling the starting goalie would have been seen as a panicky move by Berkman last year with a veteran like Max Zarchin, but Salisbury's goalie situation is not as solidified this year. Whatever you want to say about the move, it worked. Although Zach Krissoff promptly gave up two goals to start the second quarter to put the champs in a 6-1 hole, a message was sent to the rest of the team that they shouldn't expect too much help between the pipes.

After Mike Von Kamecke stemmed the Bullet onslaught Trip Dyer scored his second goal of he game to keep the Gettysburg lead at five goals heading into halftime.

Who knows what Berkman or his team leaders said at halftime but the affects were startling. Starting with Ryan Brown's performance at the face-off X - the senior won 12-of-18 draws and combined with Ryan Finch to take 15-of-23 - and trickling down to the defensive and transition play, Salisbury was a different team.

Before seven minutes had expired in the third quarter the lead was trimmed to 7-5 as the Gulls rattled off three straight, capped by Von Kamecke's second marker. It was clear the Bullets were not going to let senior marksmen Greg Titus (1g) and Matt Hickman (1g) as well as junior playmaker Kylor Berkman (0 points) beat them, so the pressure would be on the unsung members of Salisbury to produce. Eventually, they did.

The two teams traded goals to end the third quarter, keeping the Gettysburg margin at two, 8-6.

And then the fourth quarter started. Excellent goalie play by Krissoff and his counterpart, Zachary Furshman, highlighted the first seven minutes of action in the final frame, but then the Gulls finally - and perhaps inevitably - broke through.

In the span of 2:03, Salisbury went from two goals down to two goals up after scores by Stephen Krasco, Bruce Richardson and Von Kamecke, who entered the game with 10 goals in 10 games and exited Saturday's tilt with four in 60 minutes.

As the realization set in for Hank Janczyk and the rest of the Bullets that their best effort was once again not going to be enough, Jake DeLillo scored with just over a minute left to put the finishing touches on the 11-8 victory.

The game ended with Salisbury not only holding the advantage in face-offs, but also ground balls (33-14), just as the Gulls' coach predicted the winner would. Berkman probably didn't figure he'd have to produce his team's signature game of the 2008 season to do it, but in the end his team found a way.

And the beat goes on.

Back on the Eastern Shore, Jim Nestor, Salisbury's women's coach, had an idea of what the score would look like if No. 2 Salisbury was going to pull off the upset of No. 1 and defending national champion Franklin & Marshall.

"I'd say low double-digits probably," said Nestor. "They have a really strong defense and a good goalkeeper so they are really tough to score on. If we can hold them at bay, I would expect high single-digits or low double-digits."

The Gulls did manage to hold the Dips at bay, confounding one of the best offensive units in the country and holding F&M to just seven goals in a 9-7 Salisbury upset.

This games nearly mirrored the men's contest, as the No. 2 team - in the women's case, Salisbury - raced out to a 6-1 lead midway through the first half only to watch the defending champs rally to take a 7-6 lead with 16:47 left remaining in the game.

However, unlike the Gettysburg men, the Gull women responded, tying the game 18 seconds later and then posting two goals down the stretch for the victory.

F&M stud Jen Pritchard finished with three goals and Salisbury star Sue Ackermann added two of her own, but the pair was otherwise marked out of the game for the most part by two excellent defenses.

When the polls come out early next week we'll find Salisbury atop both the men's and women's poll in Division III, a one-school lacrosse domination last seen during Middlebury's salad days earlier this decade.

Being the top teams in the country doesn't mean much in March, but for now it's a Salisbury world, and the rest of us are playing for No. 2.

Contact Jac Coyne at jcoyne@uslacrosse.org.