MEDFORD, MA (May 18, 2025) -- The top-ranked Tufts University men's lacrosse team played one its best games of the season Sunday evening in the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Semifinals, exploding for 26 goals to knock off No. 5 Bowdoin College on Bello Field while punching its ticket to the national title game for the third consecutive season.
The Jumbos will now take on No. 17 Dickinson College in the NCAA Championship game next Sunday, May 25 at 7 p.m. under the lights of Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL's New England Patriots. This will be the fourth national title game played in Foxborough, Massachusetts, while Tufts will be playing its first-ever title game in its backyard.
Sunday's semifinals was full of goals, as Tufts took an early 4-2 lead after the opening frame thanks to a pair of goals from sophomore
Will Emsing. Junior
Jack Regnery scored his second of the day off of a nice dish from Emsing to make it 5-2 only 20 seconds into the second quarter, and that would start an onslaught of scores in the period for Tufts.
Junior
Garrett Kelly would score twice around a
Max Ettinghausen goal before Bowdoin (16-4) pulled to within three at 8-5 with 5:56 left in the period. Regnery scored less than a minute later, while
Brooks Hauser netted three scores in just a span of 4:30 before halftime to push the Jumbos back on top by seven at the break at 14-7.
Out of halftime, Regnery kept the run going for the Jumbos as he netted back-to-back goals to make it 16-7 before Jed Hoggard of Bowdoin stopped the 5-0 Jumbos' spurt with a score at 5:31 of the third. Tufts wasted no time getting that goal back as
Victor Salcedo tallied just seven seconds later off of the draw, kick starting a six-goal run that essentially put the game away and punched the Jumbos' ticket to the finals.
Regnery, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Player of the Year, scored six goals to go with an assist and two ground balls on 11 shots. Hasuer and Emsing each had five points on three goals and two helpers, while Ettinghausen stayed hot with four more goals.
Kelly recorded another hat trick, adding an assist, while
Callum Wood came in late to score twice. In all, 11 players tallied goals in the win.
Defensively,
Joey Waldbaum was once again strong with three ground balls and two caused turnovers, while
Cam Delcristo,
Ben Frisoli and
Brooks Byrnes all had two grounders and a caused turnover.
Parker Merril went 11-for-18 on face-offs Sunday, picking up a game-high nine ground balls, while Salcedo was 9-for-16. Tufts went 21-for-40 at the "X" on Saturday.
Conner Garzone made 12 saves to earn his 21st win of the year, and is now the all-time leading saves record holder at Tufts with 907 for his career. Garzone has started 87 games and posted an 80-7 record while stopping over 54 percent of his shots.
Patrick Fitzgerald scored five times for Bowdoin in the loss, while Casey Ryan had two goals and three helpers.
Sunday's meeting with Dickinson will be the first all-time between the two teams. Dickinson earned its spot in the NCAA Tournament with wins over No. 19 Denison University (8-7), No. 2 Salisbury University (11-10), No. 6 RPI (11-9) and No. 3 RIT (12-10).
--JUMBOS--
