Men's soccer competes in difficult double-header weekend, loses No. 1 ranking

Tufts men’s soccer was on the road this past weekend, competing first against Amherst on Saturday followed by Hamilton on Sunday. The Jumbos, who came into the weekend ranked No. 1, fell 2–1 in overtime play to the Amherst Mammoths, who assumed the Jumbos’ first-place position. The following day’s contest at Hamilton finished in a 1–1 tie after reaching double-overtime play.

Tufts was coming off of its first regular-season loss since 2017 to Babson College moving into the weekend. Despite the chip to their record, the Jumbos said this loss only pushed them to work harder.

“If anything, the loss to Babson positively affected us,” senior midfielder Zach Lane said. “I think that it re-centered our focus, and it was a little bit of a wake-up call. We had to change our attitude moving into each game.” 

After a highly competitive game against Amherst the day before, Tufts took on the Hamilton Continentals on Sunday.

“The Sunday of a doubleheader is always a tough one,” senior midfielder Brett Rojas said. “A lot of the guys were pretty tired. We were still leading early and I thought we were dominating. The second half we had a few penalties and personal errors. We created good chances, but we just couldn’t get the results. It wasn’t a terrible performance by any means, but we should’ve done better.”

Similarly to the Amherst game the day before, Tufts had many shots and opportunities to score, but they just were not placing. Within the first 20 minutes of play, senior midfielder/forward and co-captain Gavin Tasker sent the ball to junior defender/midfielder Calvin Aroh, but the shot went high. Just after, Hamilton earned a prime scoring opportunity when sophomore midfielder Roth Wetzel was left undefended at the top of the box. Wetzel fired a shot to the right that sent sophomore goalkeeper Erich Kindermann diving to make the save.

The first goal for Tufts came in the 32nd minute of play. After Tufts earned a foul from 25 yards out, junior midfielder Travis Van Brewer tossed the ball to the right post, finding junior defender Biagio Paoletta, who headed the ball into the back of the net to give Tufts a 1–0 lead moving into the second half. 

In the 51st minute of play, Hamilton senior forward Aidan Wood scored the equalizer for Hamilton off a penalty kick. Shortly after, Hamilton senior forward Jefri Schmidt nearly put another one up on the board for the Continentals. Schmidt accepted a cross and fired a shot, but Kindermann made the save for the Jumbos. Junior midfielder/forward Mati Cano, senior midfielder/defender Zach Trevorrow, junior forward Max Jacobs and Lane all made scoring attempts for the Jumbos in the second half that just missed the net. 

The contest was sent into overtime, and then double-overtime, eventually ending in a 1–1 draw. In both overtime periods, the Jumbos capitalized on possession, but their shots did not place.

“Hamilton is a team that works hard and is very organized,” Lane said. “They played well, mostly on defense. They were tactical with how they scored and used the penalties to their advantage. It was another game in which the opportunities were there but we just couldn’t necessarily finish. We played well enough to win the game, and unfortunately, a few bounces didn’t go our way in the end.”

The day before, Tufts came out aggressively at Amherst, nearly scoring its first goal in the first two minutes of play. Van Brewer sent the ball to the right post of the goal, finding Lane whose header was saved by Amherst sophomore goalkeeper Bernie White. Amherst sophomore forward German Giammattei quickly responded, but his shot was blocked by Tufts defenders. A following corner kick was also cleared by Tufts defense. 

The first goal came in the 16th minute of play. Sophomore defender Ian Dalytossed the ball to Lane, who then found Tasker in the 18-yard box. Tasker skillfully fired a shot to the top left corner that found the goal, giving Tufts a 1–0 lead. 

The lead was cut short, however, as Giammattei scored the equalizer in the 23rd minute of play off of a pass from senior midfielder Dane Lind. Giammattei’s shot to the left beat out junior goalkeeper Will Harned, tying the score up at 1–1. The Jumbos had one more opportunity to move into the second half with a lead when Trevorrow was tackled from behind, earning a free-kick. However, the shot did not place. 

The second half was a back-and-forth contest. Both teams created clean opportunities to secure the lead; however, neither offensive unit could find the back of the net.Cano came close with 22 minutes left to play in regulation, taking control of the ball off a corner and making a deflection shot that caused White to dive for a clutch save. Rojas rebounded Cano’s shot yet again, but it soared over the net. 

As the clock was winding down, the tempo of play intensified as both teams continued to battle for the lead. With less than 10 minutes of regulation time remaining, senior forward Joe Braun sent the ball to Lane who took a left-footed shot from the top of the box. Again, White made a diving save, and the game was sent into overtime. 

Giammattei took charge seconds into overtime play, charging down the field and firing a shot from 20 yards out. The ball flew by Harned, and Amherst took home the 2–1 victory. With this win, Amherst took Tufts’ No. 1 NCAA Div. III ranking and No. 1 NESCAC ranking. 

“It was a pretty even game,” Lane said. “Either team could’ve won. It was a super high-intensity game, with No. 1 in the country versus No. 2 in the country. [Amherst] has the frontrunner for NESCAC player of the year. [Giammattei] was the difference in the game, but besides that, we had chances to win that we didn’t take and [Giammattei] did in overtime.”

After this weekend’s double-header, Tufts is now 8–2–2 and 4–1–2 in NESCAC matchups. The team will take on Conn. College at home on Bello Field Saturday, Oct. 19 at 2:30 p.m.