Salisbury University’s 29-17 defeat of UMBC was not what you’d expect.

The Sharks won one of the two national championships held last year, and are always near the top of the DII College heap. A winning margin of 12 points seems a bit small.

But there were mitigating factors. The first, and most important, is that UMBC is a much improved team. But it didn’t help Salisbury’s cause that the game had no referee assigned. On his own on Saturday as coach for the Sharks, Bill Creese was forced to officiate the match, leaving all game-time decisions (including subs and the halftime talk) to the players.

The result was a bit of a loose affair from the Sharks, who, of course, got into penalty trouble thanks to their coach.

In addition, Salisbury had lost flyhalf Nick Rodriguez to injury and finished the game without both of their starting centers thanks to injury.

Ultimately, then the execution wasn’t quite there, but Creese saw some things to be happy with.

“We lost some back line cohesion, but that’s to be expected, and we were tentative - catching the ball flat-footed,” Creese told Goff Rugby Report. “But they kept playing and worked hard despite the injuries, and I was proud of that.”

Captain John Capobianco and another veteran forward, Scott Wheeler, threw themselves into the effort, knowing they needed to more, especially on offense, to seal the victory.

“They just willed it,” said Creese, who hopes to be ensconced on the sideline for September 27th’s game at Georgetown.

Things don’t get any easier for UMBC as they take on Towson this coming weekend.

In other Potomac Conference action, George Mason hammered Johns Hopkins 69-5, and Georgetown beat George Washington 28-7.

Coming this weekend in the Potomac Conference:
George Mason (1-0) at George Washington (0-1)
Georgetown (1-0) at Johns Hopkins (0-1)
UMBC (1-0) at Towson (0-0)
Bye: Salisbury