May 28, 2000

NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPS POST-GAME QUOTES

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP - C.W. Post vs. Limestone College

May 28, 2000 - Ludwig Field (College Park, Md.)

LIMESTONE COLLEGE

HEAD COACH MIKE CERINO ON THE GAME: "First of all I don't think we could have found a more worthy opponent at the Division II level than C.W. Post. Certainly they have been one of the classiest programs in Division II in the last two years. We're very excited, having beaten them in the championship game and representing our program at this level. Congratulations to Post for a great season. We couldn't have found a more worthy opponent."

COACH CERINO ON THE GAME: "Some people will think this is an upset. A lot of people call it regionalization. Regionalization has been going on in the other divisions for awhile as far as match-up-wise. We felt like we were one of the better teams in the country this year and we've been a top five team for the last three or four years. It was just a matter of time. We focused not on North versus South, but on beating Post on May 28."

CERINO ON HIS TEAM'S DEFENSE: "I really feel like our defense has come to the next level. It's the most talented group I've worked with in the last 10 years. The problem was making them come together as a unit. Travis Gillespie was a member of the Canadian U-19 team, Josh Rudder was a Junior College All-American and we had a freshman goalkeeper in Matt Malloy. The only returning player was Mat Wilde in the close defense. We centered on Mat's leadership to pull the unit together. When they started the click and believe in each other, that's when the talent took over. I felt like they became one of the better defenses in Division II down the stretch."

GOALKEEPER MATT MALLOY ON THE LAST 15 SECONDS: "I don't know what was going through my head. I just didn't want them to score. I was just ecstatic. I knew if we could hold them behind the goal and have them force a pass or a shot, then the game would be over. Fifteen seconds isn't really too long for them to set up."

C.W. POST

HEAD COACH TOM POSTEL: "I charged the offense with winning the game, but we didn't shoot well early in the game. We had a lot of opportunities inside their defense and we didn't put the ball in the cage. And that's the charge of an offensive player to do that. It's not easy all the time, but when you do it, you win games and you separate, sometimes, from the opponent. We weren't able to do that because they were effective and their goalie was effective."

COACH TOM POSTEL: "A lot of people in the lacrosse world thought that Post was going to run through them. We didn't. We respected them all the way, and they showed that they were a very, very good lacrosse team because they beat a legitimate lacrosse team here."

JUNIOR ATTACKMAN BENNY COTTONE ON THE PRESSURE OF REPRESENTING THE NORTH: "Everybody thinks the North's all-powerful. So, we felt we had to step up to that and prove it. During the game, I just felt like at times we weren't clicking, we couldn't get things going. We couldn't score a few goals at a time. They were just coming one at a time."

SENIOR DEFENSEMAN DAVE KELLY: "I knew they were a legitimate team and I knew it was going to be a hard-fought battle, but a lot of points in the game when we were down one goal or two goals, I thought we could come back and go ahead. But things went their way and never went our way."