Salisbury and Towson advanced to the Potomac final Saturday with wins over Mt. St. Mary’s and Georgetown, respectively.

The first game of the day, Towson vs. Georgetown, was considerably closer than the second one. The Hoyas drew first blood with a try from inside center Liam Burrell and conversion by Jack Sheridan. Towson responded with a converted try to tie the game, and would score another to a Georgetown penalty kick to take a 14-10 lead into halftime.

Towson held Georgetown to just three second-half points and led the rest of the way. The game was within one score for Georgetown until Salisbury slotted a penalty late to reach the 22-13 final tally. The Hoyas had opportunities to overtake Towson, but couldn’t get out of their own way.

“Towson beat us in the breakdowns so we had limited possession,” said Georgetown coach JP Perez. “We had a couple shots in the end, but penalties hurt us.”
The latter game was never close. The Sharks, defending Mid-Atlantic champs, led Mt. St. Mary’s 33-0 at halftime en route to a 50-14 win.

If it hadn’t been for the Sharks playing almost the entire 80 minutes down at least one man, Mt. St. Mary’s may have not scored at all. Salisbury lost a wing in the opening minutes to a red card for dump tackling, and then suffered two more yellows in the second half for chatter to the sir.

Salisbury and Towson met twice last season with each winning one, and they meet again Sunday in the Potomac title match. They know each other well, and after watching each other play Saturday, they’re a little more familiar. Salisbury coach Bill Creese was able to glean a Towson weakness by watching their semifinal against Georgetown.

“Their forwards are involved a lot. They put almost all their forwards in the defensive ruck, so it’s going to be important for us to get the ball out quick to try to use our forwards around the breakdown and exploit them putting so many forwards in,” said Creese.

“If we can contain our breakdown with less, then we have forwards off to the side that we can run some off with. That’s how Georgetown was doing stuff with them.”

Sunday’s winner takes the Potomac’s top seed to the spring MARFU playoffs, but both Salisbury and Towson will be granted quarterfinal home games.