In a game that saw the momentum switch sides several times as coaches maneuvered their Xs and Os, Salisbury State's Sherman Wood seemed to make more right moves than his Washington & Jefferson counterpart, Mike Sirianni.

"They played a defense we weren't ready for," Sirianni said of Salisbury's lineup of three down linemen and five linebackers. "It's a unique alignment, and we didn't work on it at camp."

Salisbury stuffed W&J's running game, and the Sea Gulls ran all over the Presidents for a 32-14 victory yesterday at W&J's Cameron Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

Salisbury punished W&J with an option attack, either sending the fullback pounding up the middle or the quarterback skirting around end for a total of 352 yards and four touchdowns. Ronnie Shockley led with 116 yards, followed by David Leonard's 89, Justyn Lankford's 77, Jamar Garner's 49 and Chris Newton's 20.

Lankford, a shifty quarterback making his first collegiate start, ran 30 yards for a score and completed 5 of 6 passes for 73 yards. Shockley shed a number of would-be tacklers for a 27-yard touchdown run, Garner outraced W&J's defenders to the corner of the end zone for a 14-yard score, and Newton went 1 yard on a pitchout for a touchdown.

"I was surprised we didn't tackle very well," Sirianni said after watching the Presidents' many futile attempts to bring down the Sea Gulls with arm tackles.

"They dominated the game. They did pretty much what they wanted. They ran through us. We were in position to make plays, but we didn't make them. We didn't tackle very well in our last scrimmage, either."

While Salisbury State was running up and down the field, W&J couldn't generate any semblance of a ground attack. The Presidents, led by Ryan Mandel's 26 yards on 14 carries, had 22 net yards on 24 carries.

"I thought we would run the ball better. We couldn't, but we tried everything out of the gun, and out of the I," Sirianni said. "With seven offensive linemen back, I thought we'd be a good running team. Not being able to run, that killed us."

Bobby Swallow. a left-handed sophomore quarterback who played sparingly last season, was sharp at the outset of both halves. He completed his first seven passes for 62 yards and a 5-yard touchdown to Peter Briggs to complete an 81-yard scoring drive on W&J's first possession.

W&J's 7-0 lead held up through the first quarter, but Salisbury led, 10-7, at halftime.

Swallow was on-target to open the second half, completing 6 of 7 for 71 yards to engineer an 83-yard scoring drive that ended with Mendel's 1-yard touchdown plunge for a 14-10 lead. The key play was a 40-yard pass to Kevin Matthews, who caught a swing pass near the line of scrimmage, picked up a block and veered toward the center of the field where he slipped out of a defender's grasp and continued until he was dragged down on the 1. All eight of W&J's first downs came on those two drives.

Salisbury's defense set up a couple scores in the second half, turning tipped passes into interceptions and using a time-consuming ground game to play keepaway in the fourth quarter. Swallow completed 17 of 25 for 157 yards and a touchdown in his first start.

"It's not fair to judge him on this game," Sirianni said. "When you can't run the football, you can't pass it the way you want. Give them credit."