Dashiell leads as Sea Gulls keep dominating Mustangs
The last time Brady Dashiell played against the Stevenson men’s lacrosse team, he was a sophomore attackman who had more turnovers (one) than goals or assists (zero) in Salisbury’s win on April 19, 2014.
After a year-long hiatus, Dashiell, now a junior, made a triumphant return to Owings Mills. He had two goals and two assists to power the No. 2 Sea Gulls to a 13-6 victory over the No. 19 Mustangs in a Division III game at Mustang Stadium on Wednesday night.
The win helped Salisbury improve to 13-7 in its series with Stevenson, winning five of the past six meetings in Owings Mills. The Sea Gulls remained undefeated at 6-0 — their effort aided by three goals and two assists from junior attackman Nathan Blondino and three-goal, one-assist outings from senior midfielder Thomas Cirillo and junior attackman Carson Kalama (Bel Air).
But for Dashiell, whose brother Chris played at Stevenson from 2011 to 2014, the win and his performance were special. He sat out last season in part because of the death of his cousin, Will Dashiell, and has played this season in memory of his cousin.
After his second goal of the night with 9:36 left in the fourth quarter, Dashiell turned to his family in the stands and touched the right side of his helmet, a gesture he dedicated to Will Dashiell.
“I’m always playing for him,” Dashiell said. “I’ve got a lot of special people. I took last year off. Coming back, I did it for myself and also for a lot of people who helped me along the way, and he’s definitely a person I look to and think about when I play. I definitely did it tonight because of the connection. It was nice.”
Dashiell, who had posted four goals and five assists in his first five starts, acknowledged that it has taken him some time to reacclimate himself with his teammates and the offensive schemes.
“Took me a couple games to start it back up and jell with the team because I missed last season,” he said. “This game is important to me. I’ve got a lot of connections around here, and it felt good.”
Tied at 5-5 at halftime, the Sea Gulls scored the first two goals of the third quarter. With junior defenseman Taylor Morgan serving a one-minute penalty for unnecessary roughness, Dashiell passed to Blondino on the left wing, and his shot sailed between senior goalkeeper Connor Skeen’s legs with 13:29 left in the period. Then with 12:12 remaining, Blondino converted a feed from Kalama to give Salisbury a 7-5 advantage — the first multiple-goal lead of the game.
The Mustangs trimmed the deficit in half when junior midfielder Parish Young passed the ball to senior attackman Matt Tompkins, whose shot from the high slot rang off the left post and into the net with 11:09 left.
But the Sea Gulls closed out the game with six unansweredgoals, three byKalama.
Salisbury got six saves from sophomore goalie Joshua Dean. The Glen Burnie resident and Pallotti graduate had made just one stop in Sunday’s 13-12 overtime win against No. 9 Ohio Wesleyan, but had four saves in the first quarter Wednesday.
Tompkins paced the Mustangs with three goals, and Korvin, an Odenton resident and Arundel graduate who transferred from the Sea Gulls, added two goals and one assist. Skeen, a Towson resident and graduate, had a game-high nine saves.