After consecutive shutout wins, it appeared that the men's soccer team had finally overcome its problem of surrendering second-half leads.
Unfortunately, after opening the scoring in the second half on Saturday, Tufts (3-4, 2-2 NESCAC) gave up two quick goals to find itself on the wrong end of a 2-1 score on Saturday at Bates (5-1-1, 3-1-1).
"[Giving up second half goals] has been a mystery for us most of the season," said sophomore defender Andrew Drucker. "All season we've been saying we need to keep a mental focus for the full 90. I think it's just a matter of staying focused for the entire time and not getting mentally frustrated or flustered. You just have to keep playing."
The Jumbos got on the board early in the second half, as senior tri-captain Mike Guigli dribbled through the midfield into the Bates defensive zone and fired a shot past multiple players, including sophomore keeper Aaron Schleicher, and inside the left post for the goal.
Bates leveled the score at one goal apiece in the sixty-fourth minute of the match, as senior Terence O'Connell, last week's NESCAC Player of the Week, found the back of the net for his seventh goal of the season, a team and conference best. Bates Junior midfielder Ithai Schori served a perfect corner kick to assist on the tally, setting up O'Connell to head the ball past Jumbo freshman goalkeeper Brian Dulmovits, who recorded two saves in the loss.
As other teams have against the Jumbos this season, Bates struck while the iron was hot to score what would prove to be the game-winning goal.
In a goal eerily similar to one scored by Salve Regina off a kickoff in its win over Tufts two weeks ago, Bates sophomore striker Brent Morin took advantage of the element of surprise to break the tie just over two minutes after O'Connell's equalizer. Morin hammered a first-touch shot from about 40 yards out, beating Dulmovits in the top-shelf, as the ball sailed underneath the crossbar for the goal.
For the second time this season, Tufts went from enjoying a one-goal advantage to tasting defeat, falling back under .500 in a matter of minutes.
"In the last couple of wins, we came out really hard and really put together a solid 90 minutes," Drucker said. "I don't feel like we played as well yesterday."
Junior tri-captain Jon Glass echoed his teammate's sentiments.
"For some reason things were not coming together for us. We weren't working up our attacks like we normally do. We weren't showing much composure offensively," Glass said.
Tufts sophomore striker Dan Jozwiak picked up an assist on the team's only score. He now has five points on the season, third-best on the team. Guigli's goal, his third of the season, gave him seven points this fall. Both marks are second best on the team, behind junior striker Mattia Chason, who was held without a goal for the first time in almost two weeks.
Chason's disappearance from the score sheet is a telling statistic. In Tufts' three wins this season, he has registered either a goal or an assist. In the Jumbos' four defeats, however, Chason has been absent from the box score.
Credit is due to Schleicher and the rest of the Bates defense for silencing Chason and the Tufts attack for the vast majority of the game. Aside from the Bobcats' goal-scorers, Schleicher was the star of the day in Lewiston, protecting the Bates win with seven saves.
For the first time this season, Tufts does not have a mid-week game. The rest will give the team a chance to nurse some early-season bumps and bruises. The Jumbos will certainly benefit as Glass and sophomore midfielder Greg O'Connell can return to full strength for Saturday's match-up.
"I'm doing real well. It was a bad ankle sprain. They originally thought
I had torn ligaments. According to the trainers and doctors, the progress has been beyond what they expected," Glass said. "I started running on Friday, and I'm going to try to come back to practice Tuesday or Wednesday, so hopefully I can be out on the field on Saturday."
"It's good [to not have a mid-week game] because we have a couple of key guys injured," Drucker said. "It will be good to give them some time to rest, and we'll just get ready for Bowdoin on Saturday."
Tufts will play Bowdoin on Saturday afternoon, in what will be the team's second-to-last home game after an early-season schedule heavy on Kraft Field. After the contest with the Polar Bears, five of the Jumbos' final six games will be played in enemy territory, including three of four NESCAC battles. Bowdoin will be fresh from a week off and in search of a win after a 3-0 loss to Middlebury on Sunday.
