Jumbos advance to Sweet 16

The men's soccer team lives to see another weekend after winning its first and second round games in the NCAA Div. III tournament. On Saturday, Tufts took down Dickinson College by a score of 2-1. The team followed up that victory with a convincing 2-0 win over sectional host Wheaton College on Sunday, making it one of only 16 remaining teams in the tournament.

Coming off a disappointing first round exit to the Conn. College Camels in the NESCAC tournament, the Jumbos made sure that they did not make the same mistakes in the NCAA tournament.

"We knew that we had started off flat against Connecticut College," senior midfielder Gus Santos told the Daily in an email. "Although we pressed with extreme energy in the second half [against Conn. College] it was too late to pull a victory. Our mindset was to take this same energy and extend it from the beginning of the first half until the end of the second half against the next opponent. By refusing to let our foot off the pedal we are able to open teams up and play through them."

On Saturday, Tufts certainly looked like it had learned from its mistakes against Conn. College. The Jumbos came out aggressive and confident to start the game, keeping the ball moving and getting off five shots within the first 27 minutes.

"When playing in the first round I believe our team capitalized on this idea of being 'relentless,'" Santos said. "In this game in particular, the level of energy from our players winning challenges, beating guys on the ball and pressuring hard surmounted Dickinson’s attempts to play."

Despite both teams playing an up-tempo game, neither side could get on the board. Play only picked up further until the Jumbos were able to draw first blood in the 60th minute with a goal from junior midfielder Connor Brown.

"The first goal was the epitome of our strategy against [Dickinson], and that was exploiting their outside backs," Santos said. "I received the ball with time and space from our midfield and I was lucky enough to pick out Connor Brown, who made a spectacular run across the six-yard box, who capitalized on a header."

The Jumbos scarcely had time to celebrate, though; the Red Devils responded with a goal only four minutes later. Junior midfielder Isaac Pitkow got a shot off only a few feet away from sophomore keeper Scott Greenwood. Greenwood made the stop, but the rebound went straight to junior forward Alfred Hylton-Dei, who put away the easy opportunity.

However, Tufts was able to turn to its simplest yet most successful formula for a quick strike late in the game: get the ball to Santos. In the 79th minute, senior center back Sam Williams did just that. His clearance from Tufts' own third traveled past the Dickinson back line, and Santos, who was tracking the ball the whole way, found himself in open space from 30 yards out. After gathering the ball and beating the remaining defenders, Santos finished the play by sending a finesse shot into the right half of the goal, giving Tufts the lead for good.

The win sent Tufts to the second round against the sectional host, Wheaton College, a team coming off a convincing 5-0 win over Daniel Webster in the first round. Entering the game, Wheaton was tied for sixth in Div. III with a whopping 67 goals, but Tufts was prepared to shut down the high-flying Wheaton offense.

"We did make an emphasis to defend really well and really intensely against Wheaton," coach Josh Shapiro said. "We think they're a very good playing team, with a very, very dangerous attack. If all 11 of us weren't bought into that side, we were going to struggle."

Coming from the NESCAC, where aggressive, physical defense is paramount, Tufts gave Wheaton more than it could handle. Tufts constantly pressured the Wheaton back line and made it impossible for Wheaton to build up any cohesive attack for most of the game. This effectively eliminated any opportunity for Wheaton to get the ball to its dangerous forwards in a position to score.

"We tried to start the game off flying and trying to pin Wheaton in their own half," Santos said. "We knew coming in that we had the ability and energy to expose their back four, and so we felt a responsibility to break them down from the beginning."

The Jumbos' aggressive gameplay paid immediate dividends, as Williams scored his fourth goal of the season only four minutes into the game. Williams was able to send a cross from junior left back Monil Patel into the lower left corner of the goal to give Tufts a crucial early lead.

The Jumbos, who let up only one goal over the weekend, also benefited significantly from having its back line -- which consisted of Williams and senior Peter Lee-Kramer at the two center back positions, Patel at left back and freshman Matt Zinner at right back -- at full force for the first time in several games.

"When our first group is together, we just don't give up a lot of goals," Shapiro said. "They weren't together at Bowdoin, they weren't together at Conn. College, and those are the last two games where you've given up any number of actual goals. When our back four is together and healthy, we're going to be very hard to break down."

Despite the excellent defending, Greenwood was still forced to make several difficult saves as Wheaton turned up the heat, including a point-blank stop in the 75th minute and another impressive save only one minute later from a ball that was redirected after hitting a defender.

Finally in the 80th minute, the Jumbos were able to ice the game thanks to a goal from junior midfielder Jason Kayne. The play developed from a free kick by Patel that found Brown in the corner of the box. Brown sent the ball back to Kayne in the center of the box, who took a settling touch before sending the ball into the left corner of the net to put his team up 2-0.

Tufts will now spend the week preparing for Muhlenberg College, whom it will play on Saturday after making the nearly six-hour drive to Pennsylvania. While the competition will only continue to ramp up for the Jumbos as they move deeper into the tournament, they are confident and prepared to make the most of their last chance to continue playing this fall.