Stout Defense Leads Goucher to 2025 Men's Lacrosse Championship
Behind a swarming defense, the Goucher College Gophers took down the Westminster College Titans, 14-6, to win the 2025 ECAC Division III Men’s Lacrosse Championship.
Jacob Morgan, who had a career-high 13 points in the semifinal victory for Goucher, followed that performance up with a game-high 7 points to lead the Gophers to the win. He scored one goal and tallied 6 assists, having a hand in half of Goucher’s scores on the day. Gianni Karam, Kevin Gearhart, and Milan Temple each had four goals for Goucher while Gavin Jones matched the trio with 4 goals to lead Westminster’s offense. Goucher’s goaltender Jack Smith stopped 13-of-19 shots faced to backstop the Gopher defense.
Westminster had the early edge, with Jones scoring twice in the first 8 minutes, book-ending a Gearhart goal, to give the Titans a 2-1 lead. Goucher’s Jack Murdaugh scored an unassisted goal to even the score at 2-2, jumpstarting a 3-0 run to put the Gophers up, 4-2. Kyler Nigliazzo answered back for Westminster with 7 seconds remaining in the first quarter, making it 4-3 at the first intermission.
The second quarter was a defensive battle as there were just two goals scored in the entire frame, both by Goucher’s Karam. His first of the second quarter, and second of the game, came with 9:05 left on the clock, and his hat trick was completed 5 minutes later to give Goucher a 6-3 lead. Both teams had quality scoring opportunities before the break, but both goalies were up to the task and it remained a 6-3 game at the half.
Goucher’s defense was stout again in the third quarter, holding Westminster scoreless for another 15 minutes, allowing the Gophers to stretch their lead to 9. After 5 minutes of back-and-forth play, Temple scored his second goal of the game to make it 7-3. The floodgates opened from there as the Gophers scored another 5 goals before the end of the third quarter to take the 12-3 lead.
Westminster kept fighting, despite the 9-goal deficit, with Jones breaking the 37-minute scoring drought midway through the fourth quarter. Gearhart and Morgan linked up for a pair of Goucher goals, however, pushing the Gophers’ lead to 10 goals with 5 minutes remaining. Jones and Jimmy Sentz scored goals for the Titans over the final two-plus minutes, but it was too little, too late as Goucher ran out the clock and celebrated the championship victory.