The second Game of Christmas 🎄 (yes, there’s 12) took us to the Tar Heel state for the National Championship tilt in Men’s Soccer ⚽️

Clemson came in ranked #8 in the Country and squared off with #2 Washington on the Pitch for the right to call themselves Natty Champions. The WakeMed Soccer ⚽️ Park was near its capacity of 10,000 when the match started at 2:07p.m.

Clemson had survived Penalty kicks on Friday night 🌙 versus the #4 Fighting Irish and shortly after UW held off a late rally by #3 Georgetown to advance with a 2-1 victory.

Unlike some of the other NCAA major title games admission was under $20 per for GA and the majority of the crowd was wearing the Orange of the Tigers 🐅.

UW was making its initial appearance in the Finals while Clemson was looking to add a 3rd trophy 🏆 to their case back home but it was 1987 when they last captured the crown 👑.

Unfortunately for the squad from the Pacific Northwest an unforced error in the first possession gave the Tigers 🐅 a 1-0 advantage inside of the initial 40 seconds. It was a failure to connect on a clearing effort by the goalkeeper for UW that allowed the shot into an unmanned net that would stand as the game winning goal.

Clemson would add some insurance 10 minutes later to push the lead out to 2-nil and the Tigers 🐅 turned their defense loose for the remaining 80 minutes. The victory gives the Atlantic Coast Conference a much needed Natty after a disappointing football season prior to falling short in the Men’s ACC – Big 10 basketball 🏀 challenge.

54° and Sunny plus a energized crowd made for an enjoyable experience! Even more enjoyable if you were wearing Orange…