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

Men's soccer defeats Bobcats, remains undefeated

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Sophomore forward Mati Cano crosses the ball into the box during Tufts 4–0 win over Colby on Sept. 21.

With a thrilling double-overtime victory against Bates on Saturday, the prolific No. 1 Tufts men’s soccer team extended its perfect record to 7–0–0 (3–0–0 in NESCAC).

Despite coming off a dominant 4–0 win on the Saturday before against the Colby Mules, the Bates Bobcats still proved to be a challenge.

“Colby was different, I guess," junior forward Max Jacobs said. "It was on our home field, it’s turf, we were able to just pass the ball, spread the ball around and do whatever we want with it. Versus at Bates, they purposefully didn’t mow the grass for like a week and a half, so that grass was … it was ridiculous."

The long grass played a significant role in the game, not allowing the Jumbos to move the ball as quickly as they would have liked. As the half progressed, the Jumbos seemed to grow into the game and create more chances. The best chance of the half came with 15 seconds left when a well-executed passing sequence ended up puttingsenior forward Gavin Tasker on the left corner of the 6-yard box. Tasker then looked to play a perfectly weighted pass by the defender and into the feet of his striker. Tasker’s pass rolled just out of reach of the striker and into the hands of the Bobcats junior goalkeeper David Goodstein. 

Overall, the Bobcats defense held up the Jumbos in the first half, only allowing two of the six Jumbo shots to fall on target.

One of the reasons for Bates’ defensive success was a change in its formation, according to Jacobs. 

 “[Bates] also changed [its] formation a little bit. They had four defenders and they’d have three posted in front of them, so you deny the pass into the striker," Jacobs said. "So it was super hard to build from the back up.” 

In the second half, Tufts continued to struggle to break through Bates’ defensive 4-3-2-1 formation,and Bates began to generate more chances from long balls, corner kicks and long throw-ins into the Tufts penalty area.The Bobcats’ best chance of the game came around the 62nd minute when first-year defender Max McKersie redirected a crossdeflected off of the crossbar.

Then, with 20 minutes left, the Jumbos decided to make a tactical change, as explained by coach Josh Shapiro.

 “They were very, very condensed centrally, and we thought by playing with two high wingers and getting our fullbacks more involved, we might be able to kind of get some two-versus-one stuff outside, better delivery situations to pull them apart a little bit,” Shapiro said. 

 Tufts’ shift to a 4-3-3 helped produce its strongest period of offensive pressure, putting Bates on its heels and producing a number of corner kicks toward the end of regulation. 

Despite not scoring before the end of regulation and the nerve-wracking nature of a 0–0 score, the Jumbos remained confident under pressure.

 “If you talk to [Shapiro] after the game, he says ‘look, going into [overtime], I knew we were going to get a goal, it was just a matter of when,’" Jacobs said. 

 Sure enough, Coach Shapiro’s conviction rang true. The Jumbos prevailed in the second overtime on a goal from Jacobs, assisted bysenior forward Joe Braun.  

 “[Sophomore midfielder Aidan] Welsh, our center back, played the ball over the top to [senior midfielder Zach] Lane, our outside winger, and just kind of flicked around someone with him ahead, ran around the other way, passed it to [Braun], our other striker, [and Braun] shot it," Jacobs said. "I was in front of him so I tried to jump above the ball so it could go under me, but he mishit it, so when I was coming down the ball just happened to be below my feet. [I] took one touch and just shot it and ended up going top right corner and then that was game.” 

Despite the less than glamorous 1–0 double-overtime victory, Shapiro explained that the win demonstrates a lot about the character of his team.

 “You know, the reality is you’re going to have to win games when you’re not at your best, you’re going to have to win games in environments that are challenging,” Shapiro said. “[It was a] good win versus a quality NESCAC opponent on the road.” 

Next up for Tufts is another away game today at Wesleyan(4–1–2). Shapiro has a couple of things he would love to see from his team today as the Jumbos try to keep their winning streak alive. 

 “I think they’ll get at us and attack us more than we saw from Bates over the weekend, so to be sound defensively on the road is a great starting point," Shapiro said. "But then we’re going to have to be sharp with our attacking opportunities. I think the first goal on the road is incredibly critical, and I’d love to see you start quickly and get on the front foot.”