SALISBURY, MD – The 2015 York College men's lacrosse season came to an end in the Capital Athletic Conference semifinals as the Spartans dropped a 16-4 decision to eighth ranked Salisbury on Saturday afternoon in Salisbury, Maryland.

The Sea Gulls advance to the CAC championship game, were they will host second seeded Frostburg State next Saturday. Salisbury improves to 14-4 overall while the Spartan season closes out with a mark of 10-9.

The Sea Gulls got on the board quickly as they scored the first two goals of the game less than five minutes into the contest. Carson Kalama found the back of the net at the 12:01 mark while Mike Kane scored 43 seconds later to give Salisbury the 2-0 lead.

Nathan Blondino pushed the lead to 3-0 before Andrew Gamble (Easton, Md./Easton) scored off a pass from senior Tyler Hutson (Westminster, Md./Winters Mill) at the 3:47 mark. Kane and Kalaman both scored in the final 1:06 of the quarter as the Gulls pushed their lead to 5-1.

Thomas Cirillo scored to open the second quarter. York's Dan Kaplan (Ellicott City, Md./Howard) scored the Spartans' second goal at the 11:33 mark but the Gulls would dominate the remainder of the quarter as they scored three straight to take a 9-2 lead heading to the intermission.

Senior Andrew Thomas (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford) scored the first goal of the second half, cutting the York deficit to six at 9-3 but the Green and White would not score the rest of the quarter as Salisbury netted a pair to take the 11-3 lead to the final 15 minutes.

Blondino pushed the lead to 13-3 with a pair of goals to start the final quarter. Kalama netted his second goal of the game to increase the lead to 14-3. Jake Katchmark (Centreville, Va./Westfield) scored after he won the ensuing face off and raced in to score his first goal of the year.

Salisbury scored twice in the final 2:20 of the game to provide for their final 12-goal margin of victory.

Blondino led the Gulls with six goals on 11 shots with one ground ball. Kane added five points on four goals and one assist while Kalama added four points on three goals and one assist. Sean Fitzgerald dished out four assists while Kevin McDermott scored twice for the Gulls. Andrew Ternahan and Austin Kemp each collected six ground balls for Salisbury. Cameron Maples went 8-for-13 at the X while Brooks Eibner was 7-for-9.

Freshman Dillon Hannah (Catonsville, Md./Catonsville) was the only Spartan with multiple points as he had a pair of assists. Gamble, Kaplan, Thomas and Katchmark scored the goals for York. Hutson had the Spartans' other assist.

Junior Josh Kluver (Abington, Pa./Abington) had another fantastic game with five ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers. Katchmark finished the game 7-for-21 at the X.

Connor Anderson earned the win in net for Salisbury as he played 54:33 and made four saves for the Gulls. Colin Reymann played the final 5:27 and allowed one goal without a save.

Caleb Abney (Forest Hill, Md./Fallston) played 55:10 and allowed 14 goals while he also made 14 saves as he suffered the loss. James Anderson (Pasadena, Md./Annapolis Area Christian) played 4:50 and made one save while he allowed two goals.

The Sea Gulls outshot the Spartans 45-17 while they also had a 33-21 margin in ground balls. York committed 20 turnovers in the loss while the Sea Gulls had 12 miscues in the game. York was 0-4 on the man advantage while Salisbury was 1-for-3.

The game concludes the career of four Spartans as Hutson, Thomas, Dale Kowatch (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson) and Tyler Fields (Catonsville, Md./Mount St. Joseph) leave YCP as highly successful class. The foursome combined to earn 48 wins to tie the school record as the winningest class in school history.

Hutson closes out his career as just one of 13 players in Division III history to score over 200 goals in his career. The Spartans' all-time leading scorer finished his career with 286 points on 206 goals and 80 assists in his 72 career games. His 286 points is 111 points more than the second leading scorer on the Spartans all-time list. He passed former All-American James Lowe for the school record in assists this year while he already owned the goal scoring record.

The Spartans have now advanced to at least the CAC Semifinals in all four years under Spartan head coach Brandon Childs.

After Hutson, the Spartans are returning their remaining double figure scorers from this year while defense and goaltending returns intact for 2016.

Tyler Hutson photo courtesy of David Sinclair