Shot, save. Shot, save. Shot, save. Shot, save. Sound repetitive? That’s because it was when Patton Watkins led his Jumbos to the Division III National Title game Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md.
The Tufts University Jumbos defeated the Salisbury University Sea Gulls 12-9 on Sunday. It was Tufts’ third championship game, second National Championship and their first since 2010.
For the Sea Gulls, it was their second time in the last three years that they have played in the national championship game with their most recent coming back in 2012 when they went undefeated.
The game started fast for coach Jim Berkman’s Sea Gulls, but didn’t end up that way. After one quarter Salisbury led 3-1 with goals from senior Greg Korvin, junior Sean Fitzgerald and sophomore Thomas Cirillo, all midfielders.
Just three minutes in was when the game looked to be headed the Sea Gulls way when senior attackman Luke Phipps notched his first tally of the game. But the Jumbos answered at the seven-minute mark, with a laser from junior attackman Cole Bailey, and never really looked back.
Followed by goals from senior midfielder Beau Wood and sophomore attackman John Uppgren, Tufts had managed to tie up the ball game with the Sea Gulls 5-5 at halftime.
Two early goals by the Jumbos to start the second half made a statement, but the Gulls answered with one of their own from senior midfielder Donovan Lange. From the eyes of most this game was already on its way to being over. Tufts had begun to make a statement.
The impact in the game that was never overcome by Salisbury was the Jumbos senior goalie Patton Watkins who made 17 saves in the game. What cannot be shown is the number of on-target and accurate shots taken by the Sea Gulls but then the tremendous saves made by Watkins, which ultimately gave the Jumbos the trophy.
When junior defenseman CJ Higgins scored at the six-minute mark in the third to give the Jumbos the 8-6 lead the game had really just begun. Tufts then went on a 5-0 run to go up 12-6 after three and put the game out of reach.
With goals from Lange, junior midfielder Mike Kane and Fitzgerald again in the fourth, Salisbury kept it relatively close but this one was long over. Tufts had captured its second-ever men’s lacrosse championship and was leaving Baltimore and heading back to Medford ecstatic.
The Jumbos were definitely led by the play of Watkins, which led to the relentless pressure of their offense on the Sea Gulls goalie, Alex Taylor. In the end it proved to be too much for the legendary Jim Berkman to overcome and coach Mike Daly and Tufts University got what they earned, a second National Championship in five years.
