The Jumbos easily overcame the Stevens Institute Ducks on Saturday in their season opener, winning 19-6 to extend their record against the Ducks to 4-0 in the last four seasons. The match-up was a stark contrast from last season’s narrow 14-13 victory during which the Jumbos came from behind to win. Freezing temperatures and high winds didn’t faze the Jumbos, despite fielding a starting lineup where half of the starters had never started a game before.
The Ducks opened the scoring in the second minute of play, taking advantage of a man-up opportunity. Stevens pressed hard, taking the ball into the Tufts zone and firing two more shots. However, Tufts answered minutes later when senior attackmanAustin Carbone rolled the crease and fired a shot past sophomore goalkeeper Carson White.
Carbone's goal was the first of seven unanswered goals that the Jumbos scored. The second came from senior attackman Zach Richman, who added one for the Jumbos with 9:46 left in the first quarter. In the next six minutes, Tufts took six shots before they finally found the net. Sophomore Ben Connelly had a shot hit the post and classmate Danny Murphy took three of his own before Connelly finally fed a pass to Carbone who was waiting on the goal line for the easy goal.
The second quarter opened with the Jumbos ahead, 3-1. Although the Ducks took the first shot of the quarter, sophomore goalkeeper Ben Shmerler saved it with his foot and cleared it immediately back to the Ducks' end of the field. Sophomore midfielder John Cordrey found senior attackman Michael Mattson, who grounded a shot into the goal. Twenty-two seconds later, Carbone scored off an identical crease roll, shooting at nearly a 90-degree angle for a fourth unanswered goal, forcing the Ducks to call a timeout.
Unfortunately for the Ducks, the timeout did not help them regroup, and Carbone scored an identical goal minutes later to make it 6-1. Less than a minute later, Murphy added a seventh with an unassisted drive on goal.
“I think we played really well as a unit and established what we wanted to do right away,” Murphy said. “We were really up-tempo the whole day and put a lot of pressure on them and didn’t allow them to do what they wanted to do.”
Finally, the Ducks had a breakthrough when sophomore attackman Max Bailey slotted a shot past Shmerler. However, it didn’t last, and Richman had an easy goal off a feed from Cordrey, who tallied his second assist of the day.
The Jumbos demonstrated their ability to force turnovers on the Ducks' side of the field and thwarted several of the Ducks’ clear attempts, winning the ball back before it even reached the half-field line. The Ducks only completed 14 of 24 of their clears on Saturday in comparison to the Jumbos’ 14 of 16.
The Jumbos' ability to clear quickly and efficiently lent to the speed of their goal-scoring, as it took only 12 seconds after Shmerler’s clear before a half-field pass gave Murphy the ball to make it 9-2 going into halftime.
The second half mirrored the first in that Stevens scored first, sparking a brief hope for a comeback as they cut the deficit to two-thirds. However, the remainder of the third quarter consisted of six unanswered goals from the Jumbos. Senior midfielder Lucas Johnson and Mattson scored back-to-back goals in the same way, highlighting clear gaps in Stevens’ defense.
According to Murphy, the team wasn’t fazed after the Ducks scored first in both halves.
“A big philosophy that we have is just to get the next one," he said. "We don’t care what happened on the last play, we only care about what happens on the next one."
After sophomore midfielder Henry Hollen brought the ball into the attack after winning the face-off, the Ducks had another clearing opportunity. However, because of the volume of pressure that the Jumbos' attack put on them, they were unable to get the ball out of their end, and Cordrey took advantage of the situation to find a wide open shooting lane for the Jumbos’ 12th goal of the game.
Three more goals came, two in man-up plays, from Murphy, Mattson and senior co-captain defenseman Tucker Mathers before the end of the third quarter.
Stevens scored half of their six goals in the final quarter. However, Tufts still outscored them by a goal. Again, the Ducks scored first, Murphy capitalized on a man-up opportunity and found the net again off a deflection. A minute later, sophomore midfielder Nick Katz ripped a shot from far out, taking everybody by surprise and increasing the lead to 13 with less than 10 minutes left.
Two goals in 22 seconds increased the lead even further, with junior attackman Griffin Johnson and Hollen each getting on the scoresheet for the day.The Ducks answered with two goals in the final three minutes. However, there was no coming back from the 15-goal deficit.
Thirty-one Jumbos saw playing time on Saturday, registering 46 ground balls and 55 shots. They held off nine of 11 Stevens man-up opportunities in 10.5 minutes worth of penalties and forced 23 turnovers, a demonstration of their defensive ability in all positions.
“They were great on ground balls and were really aggressive in the middle of the field,” new head coach Casey D’Annolfo (LA ’06) said. “Our defense locked it down and were very stingy. I thought a couple of the [man-up] calls were a little soft, but our guys did a good job in responding to that adversity and playing well.”
Hollen took most of the face-offs for the Jumbos, winning 15 of 24, and gave the Jumbos crucial possessions that allowed them to dominate the tempo of the game. Hollen stepped up into the role after faceoff expert four-year starter Conor Helfrich (LA ’16) graduated last year.
“I was definitely nervous but it was easy because Conor [Helfrich] is now our assistant coach, so it was good to have him help me along the way,” Hollen said. “Also, as a team, facing off isn’t just about the guy at the ‘X’ but about the wing guys too. Whenever the ball is on the ground, it's a team effort. It’s three guys, not just one, so the wing guys help me out just as much.”
In its first game under D’Annolfo, the team looked stronger than ever, bolstered by alumni on the sideline who had come from New York City to watch the game.
In the next seven days Tufts has three games, including its first conference match-up against Middlebury on Saturday. Despite the tight schedule, the Jumbos have the advantage of playing all three games at home.They face off against Keene State at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Middlebury at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Endicott at 3 p.m. on Sunday, all on Bello Field.
Jumbos overcome Ducks by 15 goals, prepare for first conference game
