The Tufts men's soccer team was upset with their seed in the ECAC Tournament, yet took the title with three straight victories in a manner that their opponents must have found quite, well, upsetting.
The Jumbos are the 2000ECAC New England Champions, following their 3-1 win over Bowdoin in Brunswick, ME yesterday. The win capped an impressive run through the ECAC bracket as seventh seeded Tufts managed to beat three higher seeds (#2 Babson, #6 Keene State, and #1 Bowdoin) en route to their first ever ECAC New England Crown.
Yesterday, Tufts was led by sophomore Garrett Dale's two goals and an impressive performance by senior goalkeeper and ECAC tournament most valuable player Steve McDermid.
"Obviously we're really excited," McDermid said. "We'd hoped to make the NCAA's all season, but this was the best outcome short of that. Only a couple of teams get to end their season with a win so it feels pretty good."
Tufts took the game away from Bowdoin in the first half, scoring all three of their goals before the halftime whistle. Junior Pat Brophy struck first on a pass from freshman Brian Mikel in the fifth minute. Junior Mike Prindiville sent a long ball up to Mikel, who tapped the ball over to Brophy after Bowdoin keeper Travis Derr charged, leaving Brophy with an open net. Mikel had a point in each of his team's three ECAC tournament victories with a goal against Babson and an assist in Tufts' 1-0 victory over Keene State.
Dale's first goal came with five minutes to play in the first half when he drilled a deflected shot into the open net. With a little over a minute to go before halftime, Dale effectively put the game out of reach when he took advantage of another Polar Bear defensive error to collect his second unassisted goal of the day. The goals were Dale's sixth and seventh of the year, and his second and third of the tournament.
Bowdoin came out of the halftime huddle fired up, cutting the lead to two goals in the fifty-eighth minute. Tufts cleared a Polar Bear corner kick (Bowdoin had 11 corners in the second half while Tufts had none), but freshman Ethan Roth collected the ball and fired it into the upper left-hand corner of the Jumbo net.
"They were really taking it to us in the second half," McDermid said.
After the goal, the Polar Bears kept the pressure on McDermid, outshooting Tufts 8-1 and in the second half, but the Tufts tri-captain slammed the door shut.
Bowdoin was definitely the favorite in this game, boasting a 13-2-2 overall record (the best in the school's history) and the goalkeeper with the lowest goals against average (GAA) in the NESCAC (Travis Derr with 0.30). The Polar Bears defeated the Jumbos 1-0 in Brunswick in early October, and this game was played on the same field because the Polar Bears were previously designated as hosts for both the semi-finals and finals of the ECAC tournament.
Tufts, however, was not intimidated in any game in this tournament. The Jumbos earned the right to play in the finals by defeating number six seed Keene State, 1-0. The Tufts goal came in the 66th minute when junior Brad Stitchberry headed home a Mikel cross. McDermid was impressive again in this contest, compiling eight saves and making several key stops to keep the Owls out of the scoring column.
In the quarterfinals, the Jumbos knocked off the second-seeded Babson Beavers with a 3-1 win on the strength of goals from senior Dave Drucker and Dale. McDermid, once again turned in a very strong performance.
"He's been unbelievable," MacGregor said of McDermid. "In the first game he really saved us. He really couldn't have played better. It's been amazing to watch."
"Most of the credit really goes to the defense," McDermid said. "Mike Prindiville especially. He won a lot of headers. Andrew Wood, a freshman, came in today and played well for us as well."
McDermid's MVP award is a fitting end to an impressive career at Tufts. McDermid has a career GAA of 1.17 and a career save percentage of .811. He gave up only two goals during the ECAC tournament, while making 21 saves.
Many of the Jumbo players disagree with the designation of these games as upsets, and instead argue that the seventh seed was too low. "We knew the seed didn't reflect what kind of a team we were and how well we played," MacGregor said. "So we decided to go out and prove them wrong."
This was the first ever ECAC New England title for the Jumbos, though the team has come close in the past two seasons. In 1998, Tufts made it all the way to the ECAC finals before losing to Wheaton College 4-0. Last season, it was NESCAC rival Middlebury that stopped Tufts bid for the ECAC New England title with a 2-1 victory.
