The third-ranked Salisbury University men's lacrosse team hosted the Catholic University of America in an NCAA Division III first-round matchup and took down the Cardinals, 19-6, on Wednesday afternoon.

Salisbury got on the board first just three minutes in as Brendan Bromwell found himself an opening in the Cardinals' zone defense from the left wing and stuck one to the low left corner.

Salisbury built its lead to 4-0 as Garrett Reynolds had a goal that mirrored Bromwell's, but from the right side, and Nick Garbarino went back to back for two of his five goals on the day.

Bennett Bradley scored three of the next four goals in the contest; scoring two before Nathan Blondino got one, then adding his third in the stretch to bring the score to 5-3.

Catholic added another with three seconds left in first quarter to bring it to 5-4, the closest the score would get before the Gulls broke it open.

In the second, Salisbury scored five goals, the start of an 11-0 run for the Gulls.

James Burton scored all three of his goals in the second, while Carson Kalama added two. The first for Burton came after a long possession where the Gulls could not find the back of the net before Kalama found a covered Burton on the crease, who gave the keeper a fake high then finished low.

Also in the quarter, Blondino started his impressive day as a facilitator, dishing out two assists. On the day, Blondino had eight assists to go with his one goal. The eight assists is the most in one game for a Gull since Jason Coffman dished out 14 assists on March 30, 1996 against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Salisbury backed up its 5-0 quarter, with a 4-0 third quarter. Reynolds, Kalama, Andrew Ternahan, and Garbarino all scored in the stanza.

On Ternahan's goal, he was in the defensive zone and stripped his mark, scooped up the groundball then took it the length of the field and found the top shelf from deep. Ternahan filled up the stat sheet all day as he also added an assist earlier in the contest and had three groundballs and four caused turnovers in the victory.

The fourth quarter started with two-straight goals via the Garbarino-Blondino connection before Bradley put a stop to Salisbury's decisive run.

Garbarino connected from Blondino once again less than a minute after Bradley's goal before Christian Ottenritter and Kevin McDermott brought Salisbury's lead to 19-5.

Bradley buried his fifth of the day with less than a minute left in the game but it was too little too late as the Gulls came away with the 19-6 win.

T.J. Logue had himself a day at the faceoff X, going 13-for-20, while having a game-high 11 groundballs.

Kyle Tucker drew the assignment of guarding the Cardinal's leading scorer, Tim Keith, and held him to zero goals for just the second time all season. Tucker also added four groundballs and two caused turnovers.

Davis Anderson, a big part of Logue's success at the X, came away with six groundballs and three turnovers from the defensive midfield.

Colin Reymann got the start in net for Salisbury and stopped five shots in 50:04 minutes to grab the win.

Salisbury now advances to the NCAA second round and will face the winner of Colorado College and Whittier College.