First-years make the score sheet for the first time this season as men's lacrosse doubles up on Conn. College

The Jumbos faced the Conn. College Camels at Bello Field on Saturday for their second home game of the season. Despite heavy rain showers, over one hundred spectators enthusiastically cheered the team to a resounding 24-12 victory.Not only did Saturday give the Jumbos their largest win margin yet this season, it also saw senior co-captain attacker John Uppgren become the Tufts men’s lacrosse all-time leading scorer, surpassing DJ Hessler’s (LA ’11) record of 321 points with 327 points (187 goals, 140 assists). Because of his achievement, Uppgren was named the NESCAC Men’s Lacrosse Player of the Week.

Uppgren assisted his counterpart — senior co-captain attacker Ben Andreycak — for the first goal of the game that came less than a minute into the first quarter. Uppgren nearly succeeded in putting the Jumbos two goals ahead, however his shot went wide, and following a timeout by the Camels, sophomore Max King equalized the score. Although Conn. College was able to find the net a second time to make the score 2-1, the short-lived advantage was their only lead of the game. A five-goal scoring run with efforts from senior midfielder Garrett Clarke, and two apiece from Uppgren and senior midfielder Jake Gillespie, put the Jumbos back on top to close out the first quarter. Although the Camels managed to get one back during a man-up opportunity, the score remained at a comfortable 6-3 margin for the Jumbos going into the second quarter.

“I think that we’ve been really focusing on sharing the ball,” Andreycak said. “When we get the ball, attack the net. If some defender slides into your face, just move it and share the ball. I think that worked perfectly against Conn. It’s a simple thing, but you could see everyone was contributing, and that’s because we were really getting the ball around and moving and finding great opportunities.”

Uppgren echoed this, referring to the ideology of only holding the ball for three seconds in the attack, and letting the defense make the mistakes and provide the openings for ways to score.

Junior Zach Richman opened the second quarter hot for Tufts, receiving a feed right in front of the goal from Uppgren, after which he easily found the back of the net. But Conn. College first-year Ben Parens, who demonstrated his skill at the faceoff position, made an unassisted run to goal that Tufts struggled to stop, bringing the score to 7-4. Just over a minute later, the Jumbos offense made the Camels defense pay with Uppgren rolling the crease and firing a no-look shot past Camel’s senior Bobby Bleinstein. A minute later Andreycak sent a looping feed to Richman directly in front of the goal and scored exactly the same way as his first goal, increasing the Jumbos’ lead to five. The remaining 12 minutes of the first half saw only one more goal scored after a ten-minute goal drought, allowing the Camels to close the gap to four, however the Jumbos' lead would only grow from there.

The third quarter saw 12 goals scored total, with five from the Camels and seven from the Jumbos. It also saw Tufts' senior faceoff expert Conor Helfrich -- who had struggled in the first half against Parens -- come alive. Helfrich won seven of 11 faceoffs for Tufts, much to the delight of the bench, and all but one of those possessions ended in goals for the Jumbos, with Helfrich scoring one himself. Junior Tucker Mathers also tallied two faceoff wins in the third quarter, finishing with seven overall.

“Tucker Mathers [and I] got better as the game went along,” Helfrich said. “Obviously we didn’t get off to the start we wanted to faceoff-wise. Into the second half we got into our groove and figured out some of the things he [Parens] was doing and were able to put together a nice string of faceoff wins.”

It was a fast-paced quarter for both teams, and although the Camels won more ground balls than the Jumbos, the domination at the faceoff position ensured that the Jumbos retained and extended their lead, going into the final 15 minutes with a six goal lead.

Although it was clear that Tufts was the more dominant team, and would likely win, the fourth quarter was the most exciting not only for the spectators but also for the players. For the first time, first-year players were given significant opportunities to make their marks in collegiate game play. First-year Arend Broekmate, who was a high school All-American, made an ambitious run from the defense and scored an impressive unassisted goal with his long stick. Because Broekmate was the first first-year to get on the score sheet this season, the bench understandably went wild. Goals from Clarke, Andreycak, Uppgren, Richman, junior Michael Mattson and sophomore Frank Hattler brought the Jumbos to 23 points to the Camels’ 12. With one minute remaining, first-year Danny Murphy scored his first collegiate goal unassisted to seal the win. In the final minute the Camels made several strong attempts on goal, however first-year goalkeeper Ben Shmerler -- who came on in relief for the Jumbos, replacing senior Alex Salazar to get some playing time in the final minutes -- made two fantastic stops, even catching one between the legs, to prevent the Camels from getting any last-gasp goals.

While the Jumbos have put up big leads in many of their games this season, Saturday's contest was one of the few where the Jumbos preserved their large lead until the end. The 12-point margin of victory was also Tufts' largest of the season.

“We’ve really been working on playing that complete game and finishing,” said Andreycak. “I think that we’ve had glimpses of success here and there in the season but we’ve been focusing on putting together that complete effort, and we did that on Saturday.”

The Jumbos face the Williams Ephs today in Williamstown, MA. The Ephs are 2-2 in the NESCAC and 5-3 overall.

“We’re focused on our Williams game on Wednesday, and taking lessons learned from the Conn. game — what worked and what didn’t work so well – and improving on that,” Uppgren said. “We have a tough week ahead of us in terms of in-league games.”