A year after playing one of the most thrilling NCAA Division II men’s championship games in history, 2025 champion Adelphi and 2025 runner-up Tampa will meet again for the 2026 crown.
Long appearing to be on a collision course this with Tampa year, Adelphi emphatically punched its ticket to Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., with a thorough 19-4 throttling of Molloy on Sunday.
Braden Donnellan paced the field with seven assists for Adelphi (18-0), which aims for its third consecutive Division II championship. The Panthers also got five goals from Michael Durnin and hat tricks from Danny Fisenne and Noah Gibson. Christian Tomei and Thomas Gentile combined for 15 saves.
The high-flying Panthers dominated in shots (58-32), extra-man chances (3-for-6 compared to 1-for-6), ground balls (46-21) and faceoff wins (18-8). They also forced Molloy into eight failed clears and 22 turnovers.
On the other end of the bracket, Tampa comfortably beat an Anderson team looking to make history, 13-7.
The first quarter seemed to indicate fans were in for a back-and-forth boxing match, with Anderson knotting things at 3 before the teams switched sides for the second quarter. But Tampa broke free from there, scoring all four goals of the second quarter and then the first goal of the third quarter to take an 8-3 lead.
With a four-goal stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters, that lead ballooned to 13-6.
Aaron Cho led the Spartans with four goals and one assist, and Rex Kesselring contributed a hat trick. Westin Schmidt made 10 saves.
The NCAA Division II men’s national championship game is scheduled for Sunday, May 24, at 4 p.m. Eastern. Tampa and Adelphi have split their four all-time meetings, trading wins throughout the entire series.
