No lead is safe.
The lesson is one that the men's soccer team (5-8-1) internalized this Saturday as the Jumbos watched their season end abruptly with a stunning 2-1 overtime loss at Conn. College (3-8-3).
The Jumbos, needing a win to clinch a berth in the NESCAC Tournament, led 1-0 in the final stages of regulation. But a goal by Camels senior midfielder Kyle Neidhardt with 11 seconds remaining sent the game into overtime, where the Camels then completed their shocking comeback by scoring in the third minute off a header by senior forward Win Robinson.
"It was a devastating way to end the season," freshman forward Alex Lach said. "We were 10 seconds from playing Middlebury [in the semifinals], and they scored a one-in-a-million goal."
"Everyone is still in shock," senior midfielder Alex Botwinick added. "The last 11 seconds summed up our season."
With the victory - their first conference win of the season - combined with Colby's 3-2 loss at Bates, Conn. College earned the seventh and final spot in the NESCAC playoffs. The Camels fell on Sunday to Middlebury.
For the Jumbos, the loss marks a sour end to what seemed like a promising season. Since its 0-4-1 start, the team had rallied to win five of its next eight games and controlled its own destiny heading into the final regular-season game against the ninth-place Camels.
Conn. College came out strong early in the game, but Tufts was able to weather the initial attack and the game went into halftime tied 0-0. But the Jumbos came out of the break with more energy and took the lead in the 58th minute. Botwinick hit a shot from 10 yards out into the bottom-right corner of the net. Junior midfielder Peter DeGregorio assisted the goal.
The game was back and forth until the final few minutes, when the Camels bolstered their attack. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, they were forced to play the end of the game with just 10 players on the field after senior defender Andrew Drucker was given a red card for a play off the ball.
"[Drucker] had been elbowed and he shoved the Conn. College player back," Lach said. "The lineman saw it and notified the ref. It probably wasn't the correct call because the Conn. College player wasn't punished at all."
"The refereeing was atrocious," Botwinick said. "It was outrageously bad."
Without Drucker, Tufts was forced to alter its regular 4-5-1 formation by moving one of its midfielders back to the defensive line.
"Moving one of our midfielders back evened up the numbers in the middle of the field and made it tough for us to attack," Lach said. "The only thing we could do was play balls to the corners and have our forwards try to chase them down."
With three minutes remaining, sophomore goalkeeper Pat Tonelli was forced to make an excellent leaping save, one of his five on the day, off of a shot by junior midfielder Chris Meinke. But disaster struck in the final minute when Neidhardt slipped a loose ball just outside the reach of Tonelli.
Heading into overtime, the Jumbos knew they were facing a do-or-die situation.
"Coach [Ralph Ferrigno] told us [before overtime] to come together and find a way to score or our season would be over," Lach said.
"He just tried to use the motivation that this is how our season has been going all year. Things are going well and then something happens," Botwinick added.
Unfortunately for Tufts, Robinson's goal was the lone shot of the overtime.
"We feel let down," Botwinick said. "But we never should have been in a position where that could happen. We should have been up 2-0 or 3-0. We just didn't play well."
