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

Jumbos drop tournament opener to Amherst

The men's soccer season came to a halt yesterday as the team was knocked out of the first round of the NESCAC tournament by Amherst 2-1. An early season favorite to win the NESCAC championships, the Jumbos mid-season stumble earned them only a fifth-place seed going into yesterday's tournament. While the Jumbos were struggling to regain their early season composure, the fourth seeded Jeffs' were on a roll, and entered the tournament on a seven game winning streak.

The Jeffs jumped out on top of the Jumbos early into the game scoring both of their goals within the first 21 minutes. Amherst was the first team to draw blood, scoring in the game's seventh minute on a goal from senior quad captain Chris Kane. The goal resulted from senior quad-captain Pat Garvey's chip pass to fellow captain senior Roger Boulay. Boulay then tapped the ball to Kane who blasted the ball with his left foot past Jumbo goalie, sophomore Scott Conroy.

Junior midfielder Tim Cannon followed suit seven minutes later on a pass from Kane. Conroy smothered the ball, but was on the wrong side of the goal line as Amherst's drive resulted in the game winning goal.

Shortly before the half the momentum seemed to shift as the Jumbos cut the lead in half by an unassisted strike from senior Garrett Dale. Dale's goal represented the first time an opponent was able to get a ball past Jeff's goalie freshmen Greg Lockwood in Amherst's last four games.

Entering into the half the game became an intensely physical match-up that resulted in three yellow cards given to two Amherst players along with Jumbos senior tri-captain Mike Blea. Tufts took several shots at the Jeff's goal during this time as well, out shooting the Jeff's 14-11 on the day. Despite breaking his streak of shut-out games, Lockwood remained stellar throughout the day for the Jeff's finishing the day with seven saves, preventing the Jumbos from scoring again.

The Jeff's victory avenged their early season loss to the Jumbos. Dominating in a 3-1 victory over the Jeff's in their NESCAC season opener, the Jumbos were aware that Amherst would be a much tougher match-up this time around.

"They're a completely different team than the last time we played them," Blea said.

Though the Jumbos weekend ended on a disappointing note, Tufts earned its fifth seed spot with a 3-2 double overtime thriller against Colby on Saturday. In a game the Jumbos expected to win with greater ease, the White Mules refused to go down quickly in their season's final game.

"I didn't really think Colby was ever in the game, they just got lucky and put their two best opportunities away," Blea said.

Tufts had two new players in their lineup on Saturday as junior John Vorrasi and sophomore Brett Wong joined the team. The Jumbos required the presence of these players to account for the absence of freshmen Todd Gilbert and Brian Mikel who were forced to sit out because of red cards.

After a lackadaisical first half on the Jumbos part, Tufts turned up the intensity in the second half as Wong was able to make an impression by recording his team's first goal.

Colby quickly answered the goal on a score from sophomore Ryan Boccuzzi only six minutes later. The game remained tied until late in the second half when Wong came through for the Jumbos again, assisting in senior tri-captain Matt MacGregor's goal in the 85th minute. MacGregor's goal seemed as if it would be the game-winner with only five minutes remaining, but once again Colby struck back.

Only a minute before time was called, the white mule's senior co-captain Mike Jarcho scored an unassisted goal that sent the game into overtime.

After a stalemate in the first overtime, the Jumbos finally put an end to the afternoon as senior Dave DeLuca scored the game winning goal on an assist from sophomore Andy Stevenson.

"They put a lot of pressure on us and I didn't think we could pull through," sophomore Ryan Conroy said. "We got lucky though,"

Though Tufts looked sluggish at times during the game, the highlight came from the performances of Wong and Vorrasi who stepped into their new role with ease and had an important role in the Jumbos victory. Along with Wong's goal and assist, Vorrasi did his own share to help the Jumbos.

"He stepped into the role, came out and distributed the ball well," junior Andy Wood said.

Both of these new additions will now have to wait until next season to see if they will be asked to help the team again as yesterday marked the end of the season for the Jumbos, who finished at 9-5-1.