PHILADELPHIA, PA. – Under the scorching sun bearing in Lincoln Financial Field, two Division III programs looked to cement their names in the history books. RIT who looked for their third championship in four years, and Tufts University who seeked to avenge their loss in the championship game last year.
The first quarter was just as competitive as you can get in a championship game. Attackman Charlie Tagliaferri scored a hat trick within the first seven minutes of the game. Tufts got out as far as a 5-2 lead in the first quarter before RIT got into their rhythm on offense. RIT managed to get back in the game and close out the quarter being down only by three goals.
Coming into the second quarter, RIT got in a zone immediately going on a 3-0 run to tie the game at nine goals a piece before Tufts could take the lead back heading into halftime at 10-9.
Coming into the second half, Tufts got another one on the board thanks to Chase Beyer, putting the Jumbos up by two. RIT would respond with two goals of their own. Both teams would go back and forth sharing their fair-shares of goals, ultimately ending the third quarter tied 13-13.
Tufts would open the 4th quarter with a 3-0 run to extend the score up to 16-13, RIT responded and kept the game within two thanks to a late quarter goal from Luke Pilcher to put some light back in the RIT squad. Tufts would respond with two more goals including a dagger to put the game to sleep from face-off Victor Salcedo to end the game 18-14.
Tufts had finished their story, after falling short to Salisbury in last year’s Division Three Championship, they found themselves back in the game a whole year later and this time they knew what they had to do. From controlling the game from the very beginning, Tufts found themselves back on top of the lacrosse world by winning their first championship since 2015, at last the long climb back to the top was finally over.
