Despite the enormous crowd presence at Kraft Field on Saturday afternoon, the men's soccer team could not muster the second-half comeback needed to overcome Bowdoin, falling by a final score of 2-1.
Tufts displayed a strong second-half attack in an attempt to erase an early 2-0 deficit. Senior Alex Botwinick provided a late goal that sparked the Jumbo offense, but Tufts failed to find the net a second time, ultimately falling to 2-5-1 on the season.
"We dug ourselves a hole early," Tufts junior goalkeeper David McKeon said. "We fought back and almost tied the game, but we ran out of time."
Entering the game, Bowdoin featured the NESCAC's leading point scorer in senior midfielder Nick Figueiredo. He lived up to his billing, scoring the game's first goal and his fourth of the season in the 12th minute, putting the Polar Bears on top and tempering the loud Tufts crowd. Freshman midfielder Tim Prior hit a cross into the box to set up Figueiredo for a crisp header past McKeon.
"It was partly a defensive breakdown, but also just a great header," sophomore midfielder Bear Duker said.
Despite Figueiredo's status as one of the league's top scorers, Tufts decided not to assign a man to mark him, a strategy that may have backfired.
"We didn't go man-to-man with him," McKeon said. "We couldn't cater our defense just to him."
Bowdoin scored again five minutes later off another header, this time by junior defenseman Dominic Fitzpatrick off a nicely placed free-kick lob by junior defenseman Harry Ashforth.
"If there had been three halves we would have won the game," senior tri-captain Alex Bedig said. "It was a frustrating outcome because I think it became clear over the course of the game that we were the better team. But you have to give it to their strikers - they came out with the necessary fire."
Tufts' chances of a comeback nearly took a dramatic hit when Bedig was issued a red card in the 37th minute for a slide tackle on Figueiredo. After conferring with the sideline judge, however, the referee changed the card to a yellow, allowing Tufts to remain at full-strength.
"The ref initially thought that I was the last player back, which meant that if I fouled the Bowdoin player I would be awarded a red card," Bedig said. "Apparently the sideline judge said he thought I wasn't the last player back, so he changed it. Whether it's legal or not to change a red card once it's been issued, I'm not sure. But it may have had something to do with all the fans yelling at him."
At halftime, the team made a couple of strategic changes in an attempt to jumpstart the attack. Coach Ralph Ferrigno moved his midfielders higher so that they could function more aggressively on offense, and they stressed playing directly, which meant sending more long balls from the defensive line right to the forwards.
The new strategies worked, as the Jumbos dominated time of possession during the second half and fired off three more shots than the Polar Bears. The Tufts attack was thwarted by a few excellent saves by Bowdoin's talented goalkeeper, freshman Dan Hicks, who finished with seven overall.
Tufts finally broke through when Botwinick, in his first game back from an injury, scored one of the team's best goals of the season off a direct free kick from five yards outside the box in the 72nd minute. Botwinick curved the ball over the Bowdoin wall of defenders and into the upper left corner, past the diving Hicks.
But the Jumbos were unable to score again, keeping them winless at home this season.
Next for the squad is a matchup with Wesleyan, a team that has won five games in a row after starting the season 0-4 and sits just in front of Tufts in the NESCAC standings in sixth place.
"Our goal is to make the NESCAC playoffs," Duker said. "The top seven teams make the playoffs, so you can make it in with a losing record. We need to start winning some good, hard NESCAC games."
"I don't really differentiate between games in terms of them being 'must-wins,' because every game is treated that way," Bedig said. "If guys didn't feel that way about every game, they probably wouldn't be on the team."
