The Best Rivalry You Don’t Know About
One of my favorite events on the sports calendar was scheduled for tomorrow. For obvious reasons it won’t happen. Every year Salisbury University and Washington College lacrosse teams meet in the War On The Shore, One of my friends started on the 1994 Salisbury team and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I asked Washington College play by play man Conner Fleagle to talk about the rivalry from the Shoremen perspective. He wrote the following, The Eastern Shore of Maryland is not a very big place, and yet, it’s just big enough to be home to one of the fiercest rivalries in all of lacrosse; War On The Shore between Salisbury and Washington College. You know you’ve made it as a rivalry when your game is referred to by name, rather than just by referring to the teams in the matchup. 90 miles is all that separates the Sea Gulls and the Shoremen, two rivals that have been squaring off on Maryland’s Eastern Shore (and one time at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore in 2006 as well) since 1974. For every fan of Washington College men’s lacrosse, the matchup with the Sea Gulls is the first game that gets circled on the schedule every year.
The Shoremen have a lot of history with Salisbury. For one, both schools can lay claim to Charles B. Clarke, a member of the National Lacrosse Hall Of Fame and a former head coach of both programs whose name graces the Charles B. Clarke Cup that the rivals play for every season. At the height of the rivalry, both teams could often be found in the top 10 of the national rankings, with 11 of the 53 meetings taking place in NCAA Tournament action as well. The rivalry between the schools was even broadcast back on ABC and ESPN3.com in 2011, one of the very few Division III lacrosse games to be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks. The rivalry has seen the likes of successful, well recognized coaches like Terry Corcoran, John Haus, J.B. Clarke and Jeff Shirk roam the Washington sidelines while trying to take down their counterparts from the lower half of the shore. The Shoremen have a lot of rivals on the schedule every year, from their 63 meetings, the most of any opponent, against Washington & Lee, all the way to Gettysburg, a team who Washington dominated the Centennial Conference with for many years in the 2000’s and early 2010’s. But despite that, the War On The Shore is always the game that gets mentioned first amongst alumni, parents, and fans of the program.
There are many things I look forward to around this game each year. If it’s in Chestertown seeing WAC walk out to Dueling Banjoes is always interesting. Yes they use that song as entrance music. Their students hang out on hill at one end of the field and chirp anyone in maroon and gold they see, The campus is always full of people tailgating and wearing their colors. In Salisbury we used to get an extra spirited tunnel walk. Prior to the 2017 season the players had to use a tunnel to get from the locker room on the main campus to the field. They always chant as they walk through but on WOTS days it’s always more spirited.
Salisbury leads the overall series 33-20. In last year’s game, WAC led 12-6 after three quarters but Salisbury outscored them 8-2 in the 4th to send the game into OT tied at 14. In double OT Zach Pompea scored with 1:54 left to give the Gulls a win for the ages. The games are always intense and full big hits (see video below).
The Stevenson and York games are also big on the Salisbury schedule. However the War on the Shore stands alone in terms of tradition and bragging rights. Washington College had gotten off to a rough start this season. They would’ve been desperate to knock off the top ranked Gulls in this year’s game. I am already looking forward to these two teams renewing the rivalry next season.
