FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – No. 3 Salisbury fell to No. 9 Wesleyan (Conn.) 8-6 in the 2018 Division III Men's Lacrosse National Championship Game on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. The Sea Gulls (20-4) were seeking their third-straight NCAA crown, while the Cardinals (19-3) earned their first national title in program history. 

Wesleyan raced out to a 4-0 lead in the opening eight minutes and held the lead throughout the contest en route to the two-goal victory. It was the Sea Gulls' largest deficit since trailing Christopher Newport 10-3 in the NCAA third round contest. Salisbury pulled within one on two separate occasions but were unable to draw even as Wesleyan either had an offensive run of its own or managed to lock down the Gulls' offense and preserve the lead.

The Cardinals found the scoreboard in the game's opening 34 seconds for an early, 1-0 lead as Taylor Ghesquiere netted one of his two goals for the afternoon. Their offense continued to click as junior midfielder Christian Barker capped off a long offensive possession with his 28th goal of the season to push the advantage to 2-0 in favor of Wesleyan just over two minutes later.

Zach Pompea, who finished tied for the team-high in goals with two, broke the near 15-minute scoring drought getting Salisbury on the board with two seconds left to play in the opening frame. It marked the Sea Gulls' longest scoring drought of the NCAA tournament and longest in a game this season since the team's game at York College of Pennsylvania back on March 24, which lasted 14:45.

Corey Gwin continued the offensive run as he netted his two markers in the contest less than two minutes apart to cut the deficit to 4-3. Gwin first finished off a pass from Josh Melton before tallying his second goal off a feed from Pierre Armstrong. 

The Cardinals regained their offensive momentum after denying a Salisbury man-up opportunity, which the Sea Gulls were 0-for-3 on the afternoon, turning defense into offense. Stanton netted his second marker of the day to push the Cardinals' lead to 5-3 and breaking a 26-minute scoring drought by Wesleyan.

The teams headed to the break with Salisbury trailing Wesleyan 5-3. It marked the first time since 2010 that the maroon and gold trailed at halftime of a national championship. The Sea Gulls were behind by four, 7-3, to Tufts University in that contest.

Melton tallied his second point and first marker of the afternoon to pull the Sea Gulls back within one, 5-4, at the 10:12 mark of the third quarter. Melton finished off the second assist of the day from Armstrong less than five minutes into the second half.

However, Wesleyan quickly netted two goals in just over 60 seconds to push the lead to 7-4 with 7:41 left to play in the third quarter. Ghesquiere netted his second of the game before Corey Aviles tallied his second goal of the season to help build the advantage.

The lead only grew for the Cardinals in the third quarter as they built it up to four goals again, 8-4, at the 4:30 mark of the third frame. Carter Hawthorne netted his second tally of the contest finishing off the Stanton offering to take the four-goal lead.

Salisbury entered the final frame trailing 8-4, its largest three-quarter deficit of the NCAA tournament this season and just fourth time all season the maroon and gold have trailed entering the fourth quarter.

Griffin Moroney pulled the Gulls back within three when he finished off a great pass from Pompea for his first marker of the day. Pompea threaded the ball through a sea of sticks to top side left, and without hesitation Moroney got off a great step down shot burying the ball into the far side of the cage.

Salisbury turned defense into offense with less than six minutes left to play as Brandon Warren, who finished his day with 11 saves, made a big stop right in front of the net sending the ball back out into the field of play. Will Nowesnick scooped up one of his three groundballs for the afternoon and found a streaking Jeremiah LaClair who made a pass to a cutting Pompea, who fired a shot right between Wesleyan goalie Otto Bohan's legs for his second marker of the day to bring the score final at 8-6.

The Sea Gulls were unable to break through the Wesleyan defense over the final five minutes taking nine shots in the waning minutes of the game but were unable to get anything past Bohan.

Salisbury took 28 shots compared to Wesleyan's 40 but did manage to scoop up 39 groundballs to the Cardinals' 23. However, the maroon and gold committed 15 turnovers including failing on five clears going 15-of-20 while Wesleyan successfully completed 16-of-18 clears and turned the ball over just 10 times.