The Tufts University Jumbos hosted the Bowdoin College Polar Bears in a NESCAC men’s soccer quarterfinals matchup on Saturday.
The Jumbos hold the third seed in the tournament and the Polar Bears are the 6th seed. The Jumbos dropped to the third seed after a 2–-0 loss at Connecticut College and a 1–1 draw with Bowdoin in the final two games of the regular season, in which they had started out undefeated. Given their impeccable record of six wins in six home games this season, however, the Jumbos entered this matchup as heavy favorites over the Polar Bears.
The Jumbos began the game on the front foot, earning their first corner kick of the game in the first minute and a free kick in the attacking third of the field in the fourth minute. Graduate midfielder Travis Van Brewer stood over the free kick with players from both teams preparing to deal with the presumptive cross in.
What happened next was stunning. Van Brewer’s left-footed free kick from the left side sailed over the outstretched hand of leaping Polar Bears goalkeeper Chris Kingston and into the right side netting for the game’s opening goal.
Though it appeared to everyone who witnessed it that the miraculous goal was unintentionally produced by a wayward cross into the box, Van Brewer later acknowledged that he had planned the move.
“I saw that we had a free kick pretty far out,” Van Brewer said after the game. “I’ve been taking them all season and had a lot of confidence. With the wind, the goalie looked a little off his line. I just tried to send it in, tried to see if I could beat him, and fortunately put it in the top corner.”
The Jumbos continued to capitalize on set-piece opportunities in the first half. In the 38th minute, sophomore midfielder Woovin Shin’s corner kick found senior defender Ian Daly at the far post. Daly headed the ball sharply into the ground and it bounced to the roof of Kingston’s net for the Jumbos’ second goal of the game.
The Polar Bears played more aggressively after this goal, as they needed to put at least two goals past a spectacular Jumbos defense in order to extend their season. They would force the first two saves of the game by first-year goalkeeper Erik Lauta in the final few minutes before halftime, which the Jumbos entered with a comfortable 2–0 lead.
The Polar Bears kept up their intensity in the second half, in which they took eight shots compared to the Jumbos’ two. This attacking intensity, however, left the Polar Bears vulnerable defensively. In the 78th minute, a misplaced header in midfield by a Polar Bears player fell to junior forward Sean Traynor, who quickly charged up the center of the field with the ball. Traynor had sophomore forward Mikey Brady running alongside him. Traynor passed the ball on the ground to Brady, who took a touch before firing a shot through the legs of a Polar Bears defender and into the bottom left corner of Kingston’s net for the Jumbos’ third goal of the game.
In the second half, Lauta added three saves without conceding a goal, bringing his totals to five saves in the game and ten clean sheets so far in his first collegiate season.
With the dominant 3–0 victory, the Jumbos advance to the NESCAC semifinals, where they will face the Middlebury College Panthers at Connecticut College on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 11 a.m. The Panthers held the Jumbos to a scoreless draw at Middlebury in early October. The fourth-seed Panthers, in their home quarterfinals matchup, squeaked past the fifth-seed Wesleyan Cardinals by virtue of penalty kicks after scoreless regulation and overtime.
