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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Jumbos shutout Camels and Bantams, move up in NESCAC

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The Jumbos were on the road this weekend for a pair of conference match-ups against the Conn. College Camels and the Trinity Bantams. Tufts extended its win streak to three games with two clean sheet victories, 1-0 and 2-0 respectively, with senior forward Gaston Becherano netting all three of Tufts’ goals.

Against the Bantams, Tufts applied pressure early, as junior midfielder Kevin Halliday and senior midfielder Kevin Lawson unleashed a pair of shots within the first few minutes. The first goal came in the 27th minute, when first-year midfielder/forward Gavin Tasker sent the ball from behind the halfway line all the way to junior defender Conor Coleman. Coleman made a short pass to Becherano who caught his defenders sleeping and, despite having three defenders on him, chipped the ball over Trinity senior goalkeeper Domenic Quade.

For the remainder of the first half, Tufts continued to threaten the Trinity goal, with Tasker taking three shots, two of which were on target and forced saves from Quade. Senior co-captain forward Nate Majumder also forced Quade to make a save in the final few minutes of the half. Trinity only managed two shots on goal in the first half, both of which senior goalkeeper Scott Greenwood saved.

The second half involved more back and forth play compared to the first 45 minutes, as the opening minute of the half saw the ball travel end-to-end and both teams get a shot on goal. Tufts earned two early corner kicks in succession, but neither resulted in a goal.

Both teams made numerous substitutions starting in the 60th minute and for the Jumbos it paid off, as Becherano and first-year midfielder/defender Zachary Trevorrow came off the bench to gift their team with a second goal. Sophomore defender Sterling Weatherbie came up aggressively and won a ball in a dangerous position in the Bantams' half. He sent the ball in front of the goal to Trevorrow, who tipped it to Becherano to put the ball in goal.

Trevorrow had an amazing weekend; he was the main reason why I got two of the goals this weekend,” Becherano said. “He’s a very unselfish player with a great attitude on the field and just tries to work hard. That’s the attitude that the entire freshman class has had. They also never complain, and that has allowed the entire team to feel comfortable with them right away.”

A notable absence for the team was senior co-captain midfielder Zach Halliday, who was sidelined with a hamstring injury. Zach Halliday has led the midfield this season after the team graduated two of last year's most experienced starters, Jason Kayne (LA ’16) and Rui Pinheiro (LA ‘16). But his absence allowed sophomore defender Jackson Najjar and junior midfielder Christian Zazzali a chance to step up into his role and anchor the midfield. Both of them were more than up to the task, and both Weatherbie and Becherano lauded their ability to bring order to the midfield over the weekend.

“When we lost Jason [Kayne] and Rui [Pinheiro] we said, 'who’s going to be like them,' Kevin Halliday, [junior midfielder] Dexter [Eichhorst] and [first-year forward] Brett [Rojas] who have come in and played in that spot,” Weatherbie said. “At first we would say ‘This is what Rui would do’, or ‘Kayne would always do that,’ but instead they have stuck to who they are and haven’t tried to be like anyone else, which our team has adapted to. I would also say that even when Zach [Halliday] gets hurt, we have people like Jackson [Najjar] and Zazzali step in and be vocal leaders in that role.”

The 2-0 win over the Bantams moved the Jumbos to 5-1-2 in NESCAC play. They are now in second place, just behind the Amherst Purple & White (6-1-1).

The Trinity win followed a 1-0 win over Conn. College on Saturday in a hard fought battle. The Jumbos took the lead just over four minutes into the game, when Trevorrow received a pass overhead that he controlled and sent to Becherano, who simply chipped the ball past the goalie.

The next 85-plus minutes were tense, as the Camels applied heavy pressure on the Jumbos. The ball was in the Jumbos’ half of the field much more than they would have liked, but the defense pulled through, mostly to the credit of senior goalkeeper Scott Greenwood, who made five impressive saves to preserve the one-goal lead.

“Against Conn., it was different because we were always turning our backs and having to run towards Scott [Greenwood] because they played a lot of through balls and didn’t try to get it wide, it was mostly just balls between our center backs and outside backs,” Weatherbie said. “When that happens, a lot of times we would start to boot it out just so that we could get a two-second break instead of doing what we should have done, which would be to play it out of our midfield and then play it to our strikers.”

Becherano's standout weekend earned him the NESCAC Player of the Week award for his performance. He is now the NESCAC’s second highest scorer with nine goals, behind Conn. College senior Pat Devlin.

“It’s a combination of playing a different position -- in the past I’ve played out wide -- and having the confidence of the team and the coach to allow me to play up top,” Becherano said. “It’s been about the team giving me the chances to score the goal. I can get the credit for the nine goals, but it’s really their assists that allow me to get the goals.”

Greenwood has also had a standout season, leading the NESCAC with a 0.914 save percentage and with a 0.32 goals against per game average, having conceded just three goals all season. All of Tufts’ wins this season have been shutouts, a testament to both Greenwood's strong goalkeeping and the defense's success in preventing many scoring opportunities.

The team plays Keene State at home today, but is also looking ahead to its final two conference games against Williams and Bowdoin coming up on Saturday and Tuesday respectively. So far this season, the Jumbos' longest win streak has been three, but they hope to extend that in their final three matches.

“In the past we’ve gotten caught up with the momentum of our wins and have lost track of the mentally disciplined attitude that we’ve had going into the games that we’ve won,” Becherano said. “In the games that we won against Brandeis, Amherst and Middlebury, we’ve had this disciplined getting-ready-for-the-game attitude that we didn’t have against smaller, weaker sides. Now, people will be ready for any game. More guys on the team have felt more comfortable contributing their voices throughout the season.”