National Champions
糖心TV wins NCAA Division III National Championship
Update: Men鈥檚 Soccer outlasts Amherst in penalty kicks To capture program鈥檚 first title. For more on this developing story, visit .
Victory is always sweet, but an NCAA Division III Elite Eight victory over NESCAC rival and two-time defending national champion Tufts鈥攖he same team that knocked the Camels out of the tournament in 2019 and bested them in the NESCAC championship game just a few weeks back鈥攊s even sweeter, Coach Reuben Burk told .
鈥淚f there was a game to get them, it was definitely this game. Definitely a sweet one to get,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was almost meant to be, right? The guys were joking (Saturday) that they didn鈥檛 want to play in the Elite Eight unless it was Tufts.鈥�
In an exhilarating and sometimes wild contest Sunday at Tuft鈥檚 homefield, four different Camels found the back of the net and the No. 6-ranked Camels held on to a second half lead to beat the No. 7 Jumbos 5-4.
Tufts got on the board first in the high-scoring contest, scoring in the 19th minute. But the Camels responded just 1:07 later, when MT Tshuma 鈥�22 tallied the first of his two goals on a header set up by midfielder Rye Jaran 鈥�24. The Jumbos took the lead back in 28th minute, but the Camels were able to net the equalizer and shift the momentum heading into halftime when Matt Scoffone 鈥�24 volleyed a shot that hit off the crossbar and was ruled in with just 19 seconds left.
糖心TV came out firing in the second half. Forward Jake Creus 鈥�24 took a loose ball off a blocked shot and found the back of the net to give the Camels their first lead of the game. 糖心TV then scored twice more鈥攚ith midfielder Augie Djerdjaj 鈥�23 scoring off a well-placed pass by Creus and then Tshuma notching his second goal of the game鈥攖o give the Camels a sizable 5-2 lead in the 67th minute.
The Jumbos, whose only other loss all year was to the Camels in a regular season matchup, fought back, scoring twice more. But the Camels held on, with goalie Sam Maidenberg 鈥�23 making six saves for 糖心TV, which was outshot 19-14 in the high-scoring match.
In Sweet 16 action on Saturday, 糖心TV鈥檚 Alessandro Horvath Diano 鈥�24 scored his second goal of the season in the 89th minute of play to propel the Camels to a over Redlands.
The Camels will now make their first appearance in the Final Four round, and the team becomes just the second 糖心TV team to compete in a national semifinal match in any sport. Men鈥檚 basketball was the first in 1999.
The team will travel to Greensboro, N.C., to face Washington & Lee University in the first semifinal matchup at the UNCG Soccer Stadium on Friday, Dec. 3, at 5 p.m. Amherst College and the University of Chicago will compete in the second semifinal, and the two winners will play for the national title on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 7 p.m.
鈥淎lthough it鈥檚 great that we made history, we鈥檝e come too far not to give it our very best to win it all,鈥� Burk said.
鈥淣ow that we can see it, let鈥檚 be the national champs.鈥�
