CHARLOTTEVILLE, VA – RIT junior
David Charney scored three goals in the No. 10 Tigers 17-11 loss to No. 1 Tufts in the NCAA Championship, Sunday.
"Tough to come up with words with the disappointment we have," said RIT head coach
Jake Coon. "I told the team in the huddle how much we appreciate what they do on a daily basis, and just so proud of them for continuing to improve the program, and especially these captains that are seniors."
Sophomore attack
Ryan Sanders scored three goals and an assist, and junior attack
Erich Acton scored three goals. Senior attack
Tyson Allison had two assists and junior midfielder
Nick DiLauro and sophomore midfielder
Ryan Langille each scored a goal.
Senior goalie
Alex Zborowski made 14 saves for the Tigers. Junior long-stick midfielder
Logan Fletcher was one of five Tigers to cause two turnovers. First year face-off specialist
Philip Minardo won 13-of-19 draws and led RIT with 11 ground balls. Junior defenseman
Joe Holenstein grabbed four ground balls while Fletcher and junior short-stick defensive midfielder each had three ground balls.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Tufts' Will Emsing scored with 11:20 remaining in the first quarter to give the Jumbos the lead.
- RIT scored two straight goals, taking a 2-1 lead on Acton's goal off an assist from Allison with 8:01 to play in the opening frame.
- Garrett Kelly tied the score 2-2 before Charney scored to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead.
- Jack Regnery and Ethan O'Neill tallied back-to-back goals late in the quarter to give Tufts a 4-3 lead after the first 15 minutes of action.
- David Owens scored early in the second quarter to give the Jumbos a 5-3 lead.
- Sanders scored off an assist from first year midfielder Evan Lyon and Acton scored off a feed from Weinrich with 8:43 to play in the second that tied the game 5-5.
- Tufts ran off two straight goals to take a 7-5 lead with 5:39 to play in the quarter.
- RIT cut the Jumbos' lead to 7-6 on DiLauro's goal with 3:32 remaining in the half.
- The Jumbos scored four straight goals inside the final 2:15 of the first half to extend Tufts' lead to 11-6 at halftime.
- Brooks Hauser scored with 12:40 remaining in the third quarter to give Tufts a 12-6 lead.
- Acton scored off an assist from Sanders midway through the third to cut Tufts lead to 12-7.
- Jackson Redd and Emsing scored back-to-back goals to give the Jumbos a 14-7 lead.
- The Tigers answered with two straight goals, cutting Tufts lead to 14-9 on Langille's goal with 2:58 to play in the third.
- Jack Regnery scored to make it 15-9 before Sanders scored to cut the lead to 15-10
- Regnery scored again with 40 seconds remaining in the third to give the Jumbos a 16-10 lead.
- Sanders scored his third goal of the game midway through the fourth quarter to cut Tufts' lead to 16-11.
- Cole Friedlander scored with 2:42 remaining to make it a 17-11 final.
GAME NOTES:
- Tufts outshot RIT 41-39.
- The Tigers went 25-of-28 on clearing attempts.
- RIT won 15-of-29 face-offs and had 44 ground balls.
- This is RIT's 27th appearance in the NCAA Tournament winning back-to-back national title in 2021 and 2022.
- Today was RIT's sixth national championship game appearance and fourth in six years.
