The 2016 Division III national championship game will feature the Tufts Jumbos and the Salisbury Seagulls. Both Tufts and Salisbury won their games by large margins which advances their post season play into Memorial Day Weekend.

Salisbury Seagulls 14, Gettysburg Bullets 6 (Box score)

Salisbury beat the number 5 ranked Gettysburg Bullets 14 to 6 Sunday evening in Maryland at their home turf. The game was 3 to 1 after the first quarter, but Salisbury started to pull away in the second quarter, with a of score of 7 to 3 at half time. Salisbury had the advantage in all major facets of the game. They had 46 groundballs compared to Gettysburg's 19. Salisbury had also won 19 face-offs compared to mere Gettysburg's 3. With groundballs and face-offs being the most important part of the game, Salisbury dominated the Bullets. Salisbury was able to expose the Gettysburg defense which was holding teams to less than 6 goals per game throughout the season. The scoring, face-off and groundball domination allows Salisbury to make a trip to Philadelphia this year.

Jumbos 23, Saints 12 (box score)

The Jumbos will be returning to Championship weekend in Philadelphia this year with hopes to win a national championship for the third straight year. They have won 3 out of the last 5 national championships. They won their semi-final matchup against St. Lawrence with ease, at a stunning score of 23-12. Both Tufts and Salisbury, weekend had common themes, winning the face-offs and groundball battles. This just goes to show how crucial how face-offs and groundballs really are. Tufts won 26/38 face-offs and came up with 41 groundballs. It was Jumbos all day. Their 5-3 lead after the first grew to an 11-6 lead at halftime, from then on there was no stopping them. The mere fact that they were able to score 23 goals in a semi-final game is mind-blowing. Will the Jumbos high powered offense be stopped?

Check out this vine of a sick backhand goal by Tufts !

Stay tuned for a DIII National Championship preview later in the week!