After four consecutive away games, the Tufts women’s soccer team came home to Bello Field last weekend to take on Trinity College in their sixth NESCAC game of the season. The Jumbos, coming off a 4–1 win versus the Endicott College Gulls, were on a high, but were still working hard to prepare for their game against the Bantams.
“We have scouting reports before we play our games, and so we knew we were heading into a game against a team that was playing a different formation from us. Usually, that’s … something we struggle with sometimes, so in the games leading up to that, we were practicing on how we defend as a team and being able to work past [their formation] and exploit it in the attack in the other direction as well,” junior forward Elsi Aires said about preparing for their game.
The Jumbos’ hard work quickly paid off as they immediately took possession of the ball and maintained it for much of the early minutes of the game. They were rewarded in the seventh minute when a corner by sophomore midfielder Emily Nicholas landed in the penalty box and, after multiple Bantam deflections, sophomore defender Rachel Arcella was able to slip it past the Bantam goalkeeper. The goal was the second of Arcella’s Tufts career.
The Bantams upped their energy, but the Jumbos’ midfield and defense were able to shut down every one of their attacking opportunities in the first half. Sophomore goalkeeper Gigi Edwards was only forced to make two saves throughout the half. Both were shots from distance.
The Jumbos were on a roll that the Bantams struggled to stop. Their next goal came in the 25th minute by junior midfielder Caroline Kelly. After receiving the ball at midfield, Kelly drove towards the goal and sent a shot flying past the Bantam goalkeeper and into the opposite corner of the goal.
Despite being up by two goals so early on, the Jumbos knew that the game was far from over. “Our mentality is that we try to keep it like it’s a 0–0 [game] and we never let off the gas, so keeping the high intensity throughout the game was really key for us,” Aries said.
The Jumbos’ next goal came from first-year forward Audrey Cromett in the 35th minute. After junior midfielder Aoife O’Reilly slipped a horizontal pass to Cromett directly in front of the goal, Cromett was able to neatly direct it into the bottom corner, straight past the goalkeepers’ outreaching hands. The Jumbos ended the half leading the Bantams 3–0.
Aries commented on how the team went into the second half acting like it was a new game. “We were winning in the first half, but we knew we needed to come out with the same exact intensity that we had started the game with so that we didn’t let them back into the game and give them another chance,” Aries said. “We just really wanted to come out and play hard with the same energy that we started with and put more goals away.”
In the second half, the Jumbos came out with potentially even more enthusiasm than in the first half and quickly put another goal onto the board. In the 54th minute, Kelly got her second goal of the night when she beat the Bantam defenders on her own and placed the ball into the corner of the net.
The fifth goal of the game came only three minutes later when a Jumbos corner kick to the far post fell to Nicholas, who put away her first goal of the night.
Not letting up the pressure, the Jumbos scored their sixth and final goal of the night just over a minute after their fifth when Aires was able to head a ball from Nicholas right past the Bantam goalkeeper. With just over 30 minutes left in the game, the Jumbos locked down on defense and kept the shutout throughout Trinity’s last efforts.
With six goals on the board, the Jumbos had a lot to celebrate. “The success that we can get as a team when we play together with high intensity and energy, and the sense of feeling like a true team and family … is really key for us,” Aries said.
After enjoying their big win, the Jumbos are now faced with five games left in their season, four of which are against NESCAC opponents. As they currently sit in fifth place on a crowded NESCAC leaderboard, the upcoming games will be crucial.
“We just like to take everything one step at a time,” Aries said about their upcoming matches. “We definitely want to get lots of people on the scoring board and overall just maintain our hard work and intensity at practices so that when it comes to the intense NESCAC games, we’re all very ready for it.”
Tufts will travel to Bates College on Saturday for their next NESCAC game.
