As the weather has chilled this fall, so have the men's soccer team's fortunes.
Tufts dropped its second straight game on Saturday, losing 3-0 to Amherst and digging itself into a hole in the conference standings with just over half of its NESCAC schedule remaining. With the result, the Jumbos moved to 1-3-0 in conference, 4-3-1 overall, while the Lord Jeffs now sit at 2-2-0, 5-2-0 overall.
Right off the bat, Amherst, which has now downed Tufts in three consecutive regular season matchups, set the tone for the day by scoring in the fifth minute when freshman Jae Heo headed a cross from sophomore Thebe Tsatsimpe into the back of the net. The goal was the first opening-half score that the Jumbos have surrendered all season, and it presented the young squad with a new challenge.
"It's always tough to rebound after you give up an early goal," said junior tri-captain Bear Duker, whose brother Jake is a senior tri-captain on the Amherst squad. "We're still a young and relatively inexperienced team, and we have to take the good with the bad."
The Lord Jeffs scored their second goal in the 20th minute, once again thanks to the combination of Heo and Tsatsimpe. Tsatsimpe threaded a pass through the line of Tufts defenders, leaving Heo in a race with senior tri-captain and goalie David McKeon to get to the ball first. Heo succeeded, and slipped a shot past McKeon to give Amherst a two-goal cushion. For Heo, who would notch a third goal in the second half for a hat trick, the game was a breakout affair.
"We knew he was a good player coming in," Duker said. "But goal-scoring is a lot about being in the right place at the right time and the whole team's effort. So they scored three impressive team goals."
The freshman from Changwon, South Korea is emerging as one of the top playmakers in the NESCAC this season, as his 15 points place him among the conference leaders.
"He's really coming into his own," Jake Duker said. "He had a shaky first couple of games, which I think is normal for freshmen because they have to adjust to the physical style of play in the NESCAC. But he's going to be a huge force for us going forward."
According to the elder Duker, the Lord Jeffs' aggressive start was part of a calculated attempt to seize control of the game early on.
"It was really important for us to get off to a good start," he said. "We had a goal of coming out high pressure for the first 20 minutes to really change the game in our favor. As a general strategic move in soccer, I think that as the home team you never want to stretch the game out."
There were virtually no bright spots in the game for Tufts. The Jumbos were outshot 19 to seven, and their vaunted defense, which allowed just three goals through the first six games of the season, has now surrendered five in the last two matches. Part of the problem for the squad has been a lack of continuity in the lineup.
"We've been experimenting with moving players around in the back and in the midfield, and it's taking us a few games to adjust," senior tri-captain Peter DeGregorio said.
With five NESCAC games remaining, Tufts finds itself in a tie with Colby for eighth place in the conference standings. Fortunately for the Jumbos, their next game is a non-conference contest against Plymouth State -- a team they defeated 5-0 in 2007 -- at home tomorrow night.
"I think we would have benefited from a game like this last week before the one against Amherst," DeGregorio said. "It'll allow us to get a better look at some of our guys and get comfortable with the lineup."
"It's always good to gain more confidence," sophomore midfielder David Orlowitz said. "If we can pull off a win [tomorrow], then that should give us some more confidence, which is really what we need as a team."
