When the soccer season began this fall, about half of those listed on the men’s roster at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, had already experienced the elation of winning a national championship.
They remembered the work, the luck, the joy when the buzzer sounded at the end of the 2012 Division II Men’s Soccer Championship, closing the door on a late rally by 2012 runner-up Saginaw Valley State University. It whetted their appetite for more titles.
“Being a national champion is one dream, and to do it again, it would be another dream come true,” team captain and All-American Jason Sangha said before Lynn battled the University of Charleston (West Virginia) in the 2014 national championship game. “To do it again, it would mean the world to me.”
Mission accomplished, but only after Lynn survived another title-game rally. The Fighting Knights scored three first-half goals and held off the Golden Eagles for a 3-2 victory. It was Lynn’s third Division II championship; the Knights also won in 2003. They finished with a 19-1-1 record, also winning the Sunshine State Conference regular-season and postseason crowns.
