This past weekend wasn't pretty for the No. 12 men's lacrosse team. Despite crushing then-unranked (now No. 19) Trinity in nearly every category - including a 54-33 edge in shots and a 15-6 advantage on faceoffs - Tufts dropped the NESCAC battle 9-8 in overtime. As a result, the Jumbos plunged out of the top 10 for the first time in two years.
But the team showed its resilience on Tuesday night, fixing what went wrong against Trinity to dismantle non-conference foe Babson 13-6 on the road.
"We reviewed the game against Trinity, and we felt we needed to do a better job attacking the cage with everyone being a threat to score," said sophomore midfielder Peter Bowers, who notched his 13th goal of the season in the contest. "We did a better job finishing our shots against Babson. Nothing too complicated; we just needed to do a better job moving the ball."
The visitors kept the pressure on from start to finish on Tuesday, with freshman attackman Chris Schoenhut starting the scoring just 43 seconds after the opening whistle. Though the Beavers answered about seven minutes later to make it 1-1 with 6:51 remaining in the first quarter, the Jumbos firmly took the reins by the end of the period.
Junior defenseman Matt Callahan, senior midfielder Geordie Schafer and sophomore midfielder Beau Wood all scored before the three-minute mark to make it 4-1 early. Babson would muster just one more goal before the end of the opening stanza as Tufts' defense kept the pressure on, causing 13 turnovers in the first 15 minutes alone.
The second period was even rougher for Babson. Senior co-captain midfielder Kevin McCormick started the scoring on a feed from junior defenseman Sam Gardner to make it 5-2 with 11:19 left before halftime. After four minutes of offensive silence from the Jumbos, Wood sparked a three-goal run - during which he registered three points - to give his team an 8-2 lead with 2:21 to go before the break. The Beavers showed some signs of life with an unassisted tally at the 1:44 mark from senior Jamie Schmidt, but the Jumbos went into the intermission knowing they had their opponents on their heels.
"During halftime, we knew we needed to keep the foot on the gas pedal and keep pushing our tempo and our style of play," Schafer said. "We tried not to worry about the shots that didn't go, just the next ones."
Plenty more shots would find the net for Tufts. Wood opened the second half with two goals before a Bowers snipe made it 11-3 Jumbos five minutes into the third. From there, Tufts took its hand off the throttle and started to unload the bench. Babson won the scoring battle 3-2 over the last 25 minutes of the game, but it was too little, too late as Tufts sealed the 13-6 win.
The performance, which included four Tufts goals in each of the first three periods, was one of the team's most dominant 60-minute efforts of the spring to date.
"I think what kept the momentum going was seeing the younger guys coming in and making plays," Bowers said. "That really kept everyone excited throughout the game."
The impact of the underclassmen was undeniable. Wood's five goals and one assist, registered on just eight shots, and Schoenhut's two goals, one ground ball and one forced turnover stood out in front of the cage, while freshman Cole Bailey controlled Tufts' offense from behind the crease, notching four assists and five ground balls. Sophomore defenseman Dan Alles contributed six ground balls and caused two turnovers, which tied Wood for the team lead for the day.
The squad won't have much time to take notes on the victory, as it will travel to Middlebury tonight for its fifth NESCAC game of the season. With the conference in disarray compared to recent years, another win is imperative if Tufts wishes to remain near the top of the NESCAC and Div. III. No matter how much swag the Jumbos have - their uniforms and gear were recently featured on the Inside Lacrosse website - another loss to a middle-of-the-pack NESCAC team could cause them to plummet in the USILA rankings.
"We're focused on taking steps forward and not taking any steps backwards at this point in the season," Schafer said of the importance of tonight's game. "We know we need to be building that momentum toward the end of the season so that a month from now, we're playing our best lacrosse."
