As Jumbo pride inundated Medford and Somerville for Homecoming, the Tufts football team, led by Coach Jay Civetti, hoped to finish the day victoriously against Bowdoin College. Tufts defeated Bowdoin 24–10 on the road last season, and today the team had the boost of roaring support from the Tufts community around them. The team, which lost last year’s opening match to Trinity, entered Ellis Oval with determination and grit.
Tufts began the game assertively, forcing Bowdoin to punt after advancing just one yard. The Jumbos then quickly went up with an eight-play, 46-yard drive that culminated in an eight-yard touchdown from sophomore running back Christian Shapiro. The rest of the first quarter remained stagnant, with Bowdoin advancing a net total of only 26 yards the entire quarter.
Senior running back Aundre Smith and senior wide receiver Cade Moore collectively started the second quarter by advancing Tufts for a combined 39 yards, and this drive ended in junior kicker Vaughn Seelicke kicking a 35-yard field goal to give Tufts a 10–0 lead.
Tufts’ senior quarterback Michael Berluti threw for 51 yards in the team's next drive until his pass at Bowdoin’s 24-yard line was intercepted by defensive back Ferris Collins. Collins’ interception helped boost Bowdoin’s energy and potentially bring down Tufts’ fervor, with Bowdoin’s defensive lineman Dax Garza recovering a muffed punt to regain possession. Bowdoin then utilized this possession, scoring their first points of the game on a 16-yard rush touchdown from quarterback Robbie Long.
Bowdoin’s defense had warmed up by the second quarter, with defensive lineman Aidan Reidy successfully moving Tufts back after sacking Berluti and then defensive back AJ Muse intercepting Berluti’s pass that same drive. The second quarter ended 10–7.
In Bowdoin’s first drive of the second half, Long scored an incredible 38-yard touchdown on a fourth down play to put them in the lead for the first time, 14–10. The Jumbos then fought back, as Berluti and Shapiro brought the team to the Polar Bears’ seven-yard line, before Berluti was sacked by Reidy again, pushing the Jumbos back to the 15-yard line. Seelicke’s successful 31-yard field goal decreased Bowdoin’s lead to 14–13.
Bowdoin’s next drive was cut short by sophomore defensive back Ty Richardson, who intercepted an overthrown pass from Long and set up Tufts’ offense at Bowdoin’s 24-yard line. The Jumbos crept all the way up to the two-yard line with rushing gains from Shapiro and passing gains from Berluti to Moore. Shapiro then punched it in, and the Jumbos closed the third with the lead, 20–14.
The fourth quarter opened with the Polar Bears picking up a lucky opportunity when Reidy recovered a fumble at the 11-yard line. Long then threw his first passing touchdown of the game to wide receiver Ty Connolly, giving Bowdoin a 21–20 lead.
The Jumbos’ momentum wasn’t damaged by the fumble, however, as the Jumbos offense came out flying for their next possession. Berluti threw a 17-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Matt Rios, and then threw a staggering 51-yard pass to senior tight end Jack Elliott, moving Tufts to Bowdoin’s 5-yard line. However, Tufts struggled to move the ball into the endzone, with Bowdoin’s senior linebacker Dan Fiore breaking up Berluti’s third down pass. The Jumbos were forced to settle for a field goal, which Seelicke successfully made to put the Jumbos in the lead, 23–21.
With under five minutes left, Tufts sophomore punter Andrew Leigh landed a powerful 56-yard punt, forcing Bowdoin deep into its own territory. Despite this, Bowdoin’s subsequent rush got them far down the field after Long threw a 28-yard pass to wide receiver Jed Hoggard. However, Richardson intercepted another pass from Long with a minute left at Tufts’ 10-yard line and returned it to Bowdoin’s 46.
After Richardson denied Bowdoin their last real opportunity, they were forced to resort to using their timeouts in the last minute of play. Bowdoin began their final drive with 22 seconds left at their seven-yard line, but were unable to move far enough. The clock buzzed as the Polar Bears reached the Jumbos’ 37-yard line, sealing the deal for the Jumbos’ two-point victory.
Despite the tight scoreline, Tufts dominated the game statistically. The Jumbos put up 407 offensive yards to the Polar Bears’ 273. Excluding quarterbacks, Shapiro had the most rushing yards in the game, at 61, followed by Tufts’ Aundre Smith, who had 28. The top receiver in the game was Moore, with 82 receiving yards, followed by Rios with 78, Elliott with 71, and senior wideout Henry Fleckner with 66. These Jumbos all tallied more than the Polar Bears’ top receiver, running back Luke Watson, who put up 41.
After the win, which was also Tufts’ first opening game win since 2019, the Daily spoke with first-year tight end Reed Ramirez about the team’s spirit regarding the game.
“The team’s energy was up from the beginning. We knew the stakes of the game were high,” he said. “Everyone was excited and nervous, but in the best way.”
Ramirez remembers that during halftime, “We knew that we could be beating them by more. We also knew that Bowdoin was not going to give up their energy. To win, we’d have to do what we were taught during pre-season and remember what our coaches taught us collectively as a team.”
“The support of the Tufts community helped us overcome the stress of it being so close,” he said. “We could all hear our parents and friends cheering our names from the stands and it was so much louder than usual because so many people were there. Everyone was unbelievably enthusiastic and that definitely pushed us over the edge during those crazy last few minutes.”
With a satisfying victory to start the season behind them, Tufts football travels to Wesleyan for their next game on Saturday.
