Garden City, NY – The Howard Dragons were unable to stop the Nassau Lions from winning back-to-back national championships as the Lions enjoyed the home field advantage to win the final game of the year 17-9.
 
The Dragons started the game out on a high note, with Zach Wentz winning the opening face-off and Max Bruno (Ellicott City, MD/Howard) scoring the opening goal less than a minute into the contest. Nassau scored six straight to answer before a hustle play by Dewey Schoenfelder (Sykesville, MD/South Carroll) gave the Dragons a man-up chance that Brian Zajac (Brookeville MD/Good Counsel) converted on thanks to dish master Philip Petersen (Vail, CO/Eagle Valley), but Howard trailed 7-2 at halftime.
 
Howard scored two more goals in the third quarter as Zane Dalpe (Belle River, ON/Saint Anne) rolled a worm burner shot into the net while Petersen added another late in the period as he curled from behind the net to score his 30^th of the year.
 
Early in the fourth quarter, Evan Rogers made a fantastic defensive play to knock the ball free and start a fast break that Zajac converted for his second of the game. Bruno added his second of the game as he was able to dodge and bounce a shot into the side netting a few minutes later. Chase Noah (Darnestown, MD/St. Andrews Episcopal) assisted on a Dalpe goal one last time for the season as the dynamic duo had done so many times this year as Dalpe scored his 53^rd for the season.
 
Brennan Treacy (Woodbine, MD/Saint Pauls) scored with five minutes left on one of his patented bull rush moves and then later set up Noah's goal in the final minute as the Dragons finished the game scoring three of the final four goals.
 
Chris Peterson (Saline, MI/Saline) made 12 saves on the day to lead the defensive efforts while Jimmy Connor had quite a day with three caused turnovers and four ground balls.
 
The Dragons saw three star players named to the All-Tournament team in Zajac, Dalpe, and Connor Gladestone.
 
For Howard, this was the second time they lost in the national championship game with the previous one coming in 2017 in a 15-14 loss against #1 Onondaga.