In arguably the most exciting final match in D-III history, Lewis & Clark held on for a universe point, wire-to-wire win and their first-ever championship
May 20, 2025 by Josh Katz in Recap
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On a dreary Monday afternoon in Burlington, Middlebury Pranksters and Lewis & Clark Bacchus lined up for the final match of the 2025 D-III season. The two teams couldn’t have been more opposite in their histories: Middlebury was playing in their fourth title game in six years and seeking their third ring, while Lewis & Clark was making their first-ever appearance in a final. In a rematch of their pool play game, which Middlebury won 15-9, Lewis & Clark made the right adjustments to tilt the scales back in their favor, coming out on top in a thrilling, universe point, 15-14 win.
Throughout the bracket, Bacchus’ coaches emphasized the importance of staying principled on defense. “We’re a force middle team, that’s our identity,” coach Sam Franer shared. “It relies on a couple things. One is our mark integrity. The other is our ability to challenge arounds… with the no under defense.” A couple adjustments were made in the later rounds, particularly in the final, that introduced more poaching and flashes into the lane. But ultimately, Lewis & Clark’s success was down to trusting each other to execute in key spots.
The first inflection point of the final happened before the first pull even went up. Louis Douville Beaudoin, one of Middlebury’s top players and a strong candidate for our Player of the Year award, tweaked his hamstring during warmups. He attempted to play through it, but was forced to call an injury while on defense in the game’s first point. Douville Beaudoin then sat out the remainder of the first half, a massive loss for the Pranksters, and one they were unable to prepare for. It should come as no surprise that, without their defensive ace, the Pranksters converted just one break in the first half.
It wasn’t always clean, but the first five points were all holds. Orlando Impas had a pair of assists for Bacchus in that stretch, including a picture-perfect space pass to Jonas Bray to give Lewis & Clark a 3-2 lead. On the next point, after a Peter Mans pass was knocked down by a crowd of players, Bacchus converted the game’s first break on a Toby Rivera pass to Levi Stahl.
Oscar de Swaan Arons made sure that the Bacchus break train never left the station, scoring a pair of goals and dishing an assist on the next three Prankster offensive points. At 6-5, Middlebury clamped down hard on defense, forcing a high-stall punt from Impas that fell harmlessly to the ground. They needed to go the full length of the field for the break, and they would convert in just three throws, the final one being a 50 yard throw from Mans that Sam London decided to swat, rather than catch, for a block. Unfortunately for London, the disc floated back up into the air and into the waiting arms of Max Rogers, tying the game. Rogers’ goal was the last of the first half for Middlebury: James Fishman-Morren earned the hold on an upline throw from Bray, and William Ahlstrom took advantage of an errant Gavin Rice throw to give Bacchus an 8-6 lead heading into the second half.
The halftime lead in the men’s division final belongs to @BacchusUltimate as Will Ahlstrom brings in the goal! 🍇
Second half up next: https://t.co/QRp2vwHjIm#USAUCollegeChamps | #USAUltimate pic.twitter.com/hYXcoV9dlJ
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) May 19, 2025
The second half started the same way the first half did; five consecutive holds, though this time most of them were clean. And again, the first break of the half went to Lewis & Clark after de Swaan Arons’ redzone flick just barely stayed out of bounds and out of reach of Mans. Toby Rivera and Charlie Wagner ran the counterattack for Bacchus, and Wagner secured the break off a swing pass from Akshay Bhatia, giving them a three goal cushion.
With the game slowly drifting out of reach for Middlebury, Douville Beaudoin began to make his return felt. First, de Swaan Arons connected with Rice for an easy hold to get back within two. On the two ensuing points, Douville Beaudoin: blocked a huck from Leo Farley in the end zone, responded with his own huck to Rogers for break number one, and, after a drop from Wagner, found de Swaan Arons on the breakside in the end zone for break number two. Just like that, the game was tied 12-12.
As a fan, you can’t ask for much more than a game to three to decide a championship. The sidelines were screaming, the complex was roaring; this championship bout had already been etched into history as one of the best D-III games of all time. And somehow, the last five points of the game were even better than the previous twenty four.
The next two were simple enough. Despite some heavy pressure from the Middlebury defense, Impas was able to get half a step on de Swaan Arons on stall nine and a half to score at the front cone, the assist coming from Wagner. Middlebury responded with a four throw hold, Rice shooting deep for Mans after he got a step on Max Zwerin.
There aren’t enough words in the English language to describe what happened next, so I’ll let the clip speak for itself.
LEO FARLEY WITH THE CATCH OF THE TOURNAMENT 🤯🤯🤯 The #SCTop10 grab brings Bacchus within one of a title! What a moment in Washington!#USAUCollegeChamps | #USAUltimate pic.twitter.com/YDfpyWN0T8
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) May 19, 2025
Shoutout to the observers for getting the call right, in the heat of the moment, seeing the play unfold in real time and not getting to look at any slow motion replays. One more time, for good measure.
Said Farley after the game, about that catch, “I’m not gonna lie, I saw a beer can on the ground right as I caught it, and all I thought was ‘I’m gonna smell like beer, because I’m laying out into it.’ At the end of the day, I was in… I love that catch. It’s going down in program history.” The catch is going down in a lot more than just program history; it was number one on Sportscenter’s Top 10 Plays for Monday, May 19.
Zwerin added simply, “Leo’s toes have never been out.”
But there were still two points left to be played. On the second-to-last point of the season, Mans unleashed a pair of his trademark hucks. The first, a flick, was just a step too far for Charlie Harder, who couldn’t stay in bounds. After a Geir Hartl block, Mans got a second chance to go deep for Harder, this time with a backhand that was placed perfectly.
Both teams took a timeout ahead of universe point, Bacchus first and the Pranksters second. Middlebury lined up on defense with Douville Beaudoin, de Swaan Arons, Mans, Rogers, Nadav Melamede, Vincent Sullivan, and Jorre Dahl. Lewis & Clark countered with Impas, Wagner, Farley, London, Zwerin, Bray, and Topher Olson. And rather than trying to get cute, Bacchus went to their bread and butter. Olson caught the pull, centered to Wagner, who dished to Impas, in position to shoot deep. The only part of the play that didn’t go to plan was the first cut. Zwerin tried to set up a deep cut, but Dahl had him played perfectly. Impas looked for a reset, but Douville Beaudoin, Rogers, and Mans had every look covered. So Zwerin looped back into the stack, took off deep, and Impas sent up a stall eight flick. Dahl couldn’t keep up as Zwerin tracked down the huck in the end zone, sealing Bacchus’ first ever title and cementing this as the greatest game in D-III’s 15 year history. It took just nineteen seconds from the time the pull left Douville Beaudoin’s hand to the time Zwerin caught the disc, the second time in as many games (and third time in four bracket games) he scored Bacchus’ winning goal.
“I’m very proud of not just the game, but the way they battled all weekend,” said coach Ben Whitenack.
“They took everything we asked them to do,” coach Franer added, “and they did it. And that is so rare for a unit, especially at this level, to be able to… execute. And the pride I get from that is so immense.”
Farley and Zwerin were quick to shout out the hard work put in by the whole team while also echoing the trust factor. “This is the most unreal thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. We’ve put our hearts and souls into this program,” said Farley. “The thing about this team is, we all trust each other… in big moments.”
“It’s a team game. And there’s so much love,” Zwerin echoed. “It just feels so good to have it all come together. It’s just the hard work paying off.”
A final note from the game; his box score (1G/1D) doesn’t reflect it, but Levi Stahl was crucial to the Bacchus victory. In the first matchup, Geir Hartl had five goals and an assist. In the final, Hartl had one assist and one turnover, and Stahl was the one taking on that matchup. His play deserves recognition.
Middlebury were also proud of how they played and executed in the final. “[Lewis & Clark] are a really good team, but… a lot of times that they scored, I felt really good about where we were at,” Jasper Pearcy-Kahn remarked. “We gave them an absolute game.” Don’t expect the Pranksters to fade away anytime soon; they graduate just six seniors, and return all of Mans, de Swaan Arons, and Douville Beaudoin, among many others, next year.
With their win, Lewis & Clark became the first team in D-III Men’s history to win a championship after playing a prequarters game. It was an incredible run through the bracket for Bacchus: they avenged numerous defeats to Whitman over the past three seasons, avenged their pool play defeat to Middlebury, and came out on top in two instant classics. If they could write their own script for their first championship, I’m not sure it would’ve played out all that differently.
Congratulations to Lewis & Clark Bacchus, the 2025 D-III Men’s National Champions!
