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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

No. 1 men's lacrosse gets the W in first conference match-up of the season

2015-04-11-MLax-vs-Hamilton-17-1
Tufts attacker John Uppgren, a senior, falls to the ground during Tufts' men's lacrosse 25-6 victory over Hamilton at Bello Field on Saturday, April 11, 2015.

The Jumbos gained an early lead against the Middlebury Panthers on Saturday and never lost it to take the win in their first conference game of the season. Despite Middlebury dominating statistically, No. 1-ranked Tufts outscored Middlebury 12-10 and improved its record to 3-0 so far this season and 1-0 in the NESCAC conference. This close victory came after a decisive 21-13 win against Keene State last Wednesday.

Since both games were away, the Jumbos lacked the home field advantage that they will have this Saturday against Colby, but this failed to hinder their success. Tufts went up 4-1 after only six minutes thanks to goals from senior captain Ben Andreycak, senior Jake Gillespie (who had two) and junior Austin Carbone, all of whom made shots past junior goalie Will Ernst of Middlebury.

The Middlebury Panthers trailed 4-2 going into the second quarter, but returned with strong offensive play, threatening the cage three times — going wide, high and even hitting the post — before senior Tim Giarusso finally found the net. However, the Jumbos matched them minutes later with a goal from junior Cam Irwin, assisted by senior captain John Uppgren. The goal, like many others in the game, came off of rapid transition play, which Middlebury had a tough time defending against throughout the game.

“Coach [Mike] Daly says that as soon as the ball is in our sticks after a save or ground ball in the defensive end, we’re on offense,” Gillespie said. “We’re always attacking in transition. We always try to do that before the opposing defense is set up with their slides. That was definitely a key to our game and it is key to everything that we do.”

Although Middlebury won more faceoffs and picked up more ground balls than Tufts, the strength of Tufts' defense and senior goalkeeper Alex Salazar’s numerous saves helped the Jumbos secure the win. Irwin’s goal led off a successful string of goals from senior Kyle Howard-Johnson, Uppgren and Andreycak. Uppgren cited the ability of the defensemen to go up into the attack as a key aspect of their success in transition play.

“The defensive guys are really skilled offensively too, and it's great to be able to have those weapons on the field at all times,” Uppgren said. “We don’t need to have our offensive players on the field to be able to go to the net.”

While the first half allowed the team to open up a three-goal lead on the Panthers, the second half showed a marked difference. Middlebury went on an attacking run to score three goals to Tufts’ one in the third quarter. Despite strong efforts from Tufts that elicited four saves in the opening minutes by Ernst, the rest of the quarter saw the ball mostly in the Jumbos' end of the field, with the Panthers firing off 21 shots in that quarter alone. However, the Panthers only managed to finish on three of the 21 attempts because many of their shots were from 15 yards out and were consistently saved by Salazar.

“I was very happy with the way our defense played,” Salazar said. “They gave me a lot of shots that I was very comfortable saving; they were getting out on [defense] and putting Middlebury in spots where it would be beneficial for me to save the ball because I could get a good look at it.”

The fourth quarter opened with senior Connor Bilby feeding Andreycak right in front of the cage, and Andreycak turned and found the back of the net, giving Tufts a two-goal advantage at 10-8. But Middlebury then capitalized on a man-up opportunity to get within one. Shortly after that, a Jumbo double team failed to pressure Middlebury sophomore Parker Lawlor enough, allowing him to run in from the right side and fire the ball into the top left corner to give the Panthers the equalizer.

But a goal from Gillespie put Tufts ahead again, and with seven minutes to go, Bilby punished some lazy Middlebury defense with a neat feed from behind the goal to Andreycak for his fourth goal. This was the first and only time that the Jumbos were able to capitalize on a man-up chance during the game.

“The man-up opportunities obviously wasn’t our best showing,” Howard-Johnson said. “We were getting good looks on Saturday, we just weren’t necessarily finishing them. That was more of an outlier than anything else. It’s frustrating when we can’t, but all we can do is look to the next game and try to do better and learn from our mistakes.”

Despite seven minutes left to play after Andreycak’s goal, the Jumbos managed to retain their lead. The ball spent a significant amount of time in their attacking end, with one of Uppgren’s shots going off the ankle of a Middlebury defender. With about two minutes remaining, the Jumbos played possession, forcing the Panthers to play high pressure to try to win the ball back. However, the Jumbos came away with the victory, moving them to 3-0 in the season, and the Panthers to 2-1.

Last Wednesday, the Jumbos had a slow start against Keene State College, with Tufts down 6-7 at the half. That wasn’t for lack of trying, with a first half onslaught from Andreycak, Tyler Carbone, Uppgren and Bilby, among others, being largely thwarted by 14 saves from Keene State keeper Matt Howe, who earned 25 saves all game. In all, the Jumbos fired off 70 shots, 46 of which were on target.

The Jumbos used halftime to step into gear, scoring nine goals in the third quarter and six in the fourth, while the Owls scored just four and then two respectively. Bilby and Howard-Johnson started off the scoring in the second half while Uppgren and Austin Carbone helped extend the lead with their own goals and several assists each.

Five saves from Salazar in the final quarter held Keene State to only 13 goals to Tufts’ 21, giving the team a resounding victory.

The undefeated Jumbos look ahead to a trio of match-ups over spring break, starting with a game on Saturday against the Colby Mules, who are 2-2 overall but 0-2 in the NESCAC. Tufts has not lost to Colby since 2006, and will look to continue its success this weekend.