Men’s soccer remains undefeated after two wins

The Jumbos team continued its undefeated 2018 campaign with two victories this week, placing it for a tie for first place in the NESCAC with Connecticut College. With a 1–0 shutout of the Wesleyan Cardinals (2–4) on home turf Wednesday night and a 2–1 victory on the road against the Brandeis Judges (4–4) on Sept. 21, the Jumbos improved their record to 7–0 on the season.

Wednesday’s game against Wesleyan got off to a slow start for both teams. Tufts generated only nine shots with three on target, compared to Wesleyan's seven with three on target as well. The Jumbos struggled to develop an aggressive offensive attack but relied on strong defense from senior back and co-captain Sterling Weatherbie as well as senior back Jackson Najjar to keep themselves in the game early on.

“Historically we’ve had a tough time in mid-week games, and I think today our energy was a little bit slow in the first five minutes,” senior goalkeeper and co-captain Conner Mieth said. “We were slow to adjust [and] we let Wesleyan play their game.”

The Jumbos' first real scoring chance of the half came just after eight minutes, when sophomore midfielder Travis Van Brewer’s shot was blocked by the Wesleyan defense. Tufts was able to keep hold of possession and worked the ball to junior midfielder Brett Rojas. Rojas, who led the team with five shots in the game, unfortunately missed the net wide to the left. The Cardinals managed to generate some offense and nearly scored in the 23rd minute. However, Mieth made a sprawling save to keep the scores level.

The Jumbos threatened again just two minutes later when sophomore forward Max Jacobs came in off the bench and fired a shot at the net that was saved by Wesleyan sophomore goalkeeper Chris Franklin. To close the half, the Cardinals earned a corner kick, but first-year midfielder Andres Marx could not convert as the kick flew over everyone's heads.

The Jumbos came out with more intensity in the second half of play. After four good attempts by Rojas and loose balls in front of the net, junior forward Joe Braun finally scored the first and only goal of the game — his second of the season — assisted off of a corner kick by Van Brewer. Earlier in the game, Braun had provided a sign of things to come with a free header in the 20th minute, only this time he converted his chance in what turned out to be the only goal in the contest.

“We really responded well,” Mieth said. “We were able to dictate the pace of the game in terms of the beginning of the second half. We were able to keep a lot of possessions and dictate the terms."

Though Wesleyan’s offense was not completely shut down, Tufts out-shot them 12 to 4 in the second half, as Tufts succeeded in keeping the ball on the offensive attack. The game got chippy towards the end as Wesleyan sought to tie it up, resulting in Tufts junior midfielder/back Zach Trevorrow receiving a yellow card in the 79th minute.

Tufts defeated Brandeis 2–1 on the road earlier on Sept. 21. The Jumbos came out with a strong offensive attack, netting two goals within the first 11 minutes of play. In the second minute, Braun assisted junior midfielder/forward Gavin Tasker off of a loose ball in front of the Brandeis net for the first goal of the game. This prevented the hosts from settling in as Tufts took an early lead. Shortly after a Brandeis shot that knocked off the crossbar, Tufts doubled down on its advantage. Weatherbie provided the assist for junior midfielder Zach Lane to head in what would prove to be the winner in the 11th minute. 

The Jumbos also played strong defense throughout the first half, allowing the Judges only six shots, while keeping the ball mostly on the offensive end of the field.

“I think our guys just recognized that we’re better when we start quickly and get on the front foot and try to be positive out of the gate,” coach Josh Shapiro said. “I think both goals were a little bit fortunate how they ended up coming to be, but they came from us sustaining the pressure and kind of being able to control the game in their half of the field and around their goal. If you’re able to do that long enough, hopefully some good things are going to happen.”

After several attempted shots on goal to begin the second half, Brandeis finally connected with a goal from junior forward Jake Warren that got past Mieth in the 61st minute, bringing the score to 2–1. Tufts was however able to keep Brandeis out for the remainder of the game, leaving Waltham, Mass. with a big victory.

Overall, Shapiro was impressed with the team’s resilience after allowing the Brandeis goal late in the game, especially after a similar situation in a previous game against Wheaton on Sept. 16.

“Once we gave up the goal against Wheaton we started to struggle and [Wheaton] really got in the game,” Shapiro said. “I thought this time we responded much better to giving up the goal and we were able to get control of the game, and I thought we saw out the last 15 minutes pretty effectively where we were able to get the game to Brandeis’ half of the field, created a bunch of corner kicks and a few more good chances to finish it off. Obviously, we’ve made some strides there in terms of our ability to react to a tough situation.”

As one of the strongest teams in the NESCAC, Tufts hopes to continue its strong style of play against difficult opponents, with the season nearly half over and seven conference games remaining.

“It’s good to get some momentum into the weekend, especially against two more opponents,” Mieth said. “They are going to be more quality, harder opponents, bigger opponents, stronger opponents. We’ll take the good with the bad, keep doing the good and re-work the bad.”

The Jumbos look to improve their record as they host a pair of NESCAC opponents this weekend as part of Homecoming festivities, with the Amherst Mammoths (3–2) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and the Hamilton Continentals (4–3) on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.