A quick glance at the box score from Saturday's 9-7 victory over Trinity may be a bit misleading, with junior Keven Kelley's 214 rushing yards instantly jumping off the page. While Kelley's performance should not be ignored, it should not be inflated either: he was simply one of several factors contributing to the win.
One factor contributed more heavily than the others, however. The Jumbo defense - somewhat overshadowed by a high-flying offense in the first three games - carried coach Bill Samko's team to its 4-0 standing, now locked in a three-way tie atop the NESCAC with Amherst and Williams.
"Around here, we say that our best players go to defense," Samko said. "So I expect us to play good defense, but certainly they stepped up."
And very appropriately, the biggest play of the game came from a defensive player. After a deep punt from senior Howie Rock with 3:26 to go, the Bantams were forced to start from their own five-yard line, but quarterback Greg Ward engineered a flawless drive that landed his team on the Jumbo 48 with just under two minutes to play.
The Tufts' defense then held Trinity in check on the next two plays before Ward hit Joe Stahl for six yards, setting up a fourth-and-four situation. But Ward pulled a seven-yard quarterback bootleg out of his bag of tricks, prolonging the drive and stopping the clock as he dashed out of bounds.
Then, with his team on the Jumbo 35 and 1:33 left on the clock, Ward tossed the ball over the middle on first down in an attempt to put his team in field goal range. Tufts sophomore defensive end Reid Palmer leapt up and came down with the pass, halting the drive and Trinity's chances of a comeback.
"We needed to catch our breath," sophomore defensive lineman Caleb Hudak said of the Tufts defense's condition Trinity's final drive. "We were tired. But we were the better conditioned team and it showed."
On the previous possession, Tufts was faced with a possible fourth down attempt of its own at the Trinity 35 with 3:26 to play. But instead of chancing the fourth and two, Samko went with Rock, who uncorked his perfect punt to the Trinity five.
"I was thinking, we better not let them get into field goal range," Samko said. "That's why we punted the last time. If we had been ahead by seven or eight, I would have gone for it. They probably only had to get down to about the 30. But we made the field long for them. If we had gone for it and not gotten it, then they're in field goal range."
It was the second time Samko chose to kick on a critical fourth down situation in the fourth quarter. With his team again needing a mere two yards, Samko brought Rock to attempt a 33-yard field goal from the Trinity 16 just over three minutes into the fourth quarter. The reason for this thinking, he explained, was related to defense.
"We didn't want to shorten the field for them," Samko said. "I have confidence in the defense. You use your weapons."
The Tufts defense promptly responded after Rock's missed field goal, as Tufts Hudak tackled running back Brian Fabrizio for a two yard loss on the next play. But then Trinity made a little bit of noise, stringing together two first downs and resting on the verge of crossing midfield after a 13-yard completion by Ward on third and 15 left the Bantams two yards short of another first with just over eight minutes to go. That brought up a fourth and two and Hudak, who made four tackles on the drive, stuffed Trinity's Tom Pierandi a yard short of the marker.
The defense first showed signs of its big play capability midway through the second quarter with Trinity up 7-6, when senior defensive back Gregg Barton sacked Ward for a six-yard loss on third down to force a punt as the Bantams neared midfield. Later in the half, the Jumbos capitalized on Rock's 61-yard kickoff and held the Bantams to just three plays to force another punt. This time, the change in possession set up a Tufts chance for more points before intermission, but Rock missed a long field goal attempt as time expired and the score stood at 9-7.
Then, with three and a half minutes to go in the third, the Jumbos halted a long Trinity drive deep in Jumbo territory and forced the visitors to try a field goal, which missed. After surrendering three first downs, the Jumbos tightened up, with Hudak stopping Fabrizio for just a yard on second down and Ward's pass falling incomplete on third.
The Jumbos had another defensive stand in the third, after Kelley's fumble gave Trinity the ball at its own 21 with 1:39 to go in the quarter. The Bantams went three and out with two incomplete passes and punted to the Tufts 39 yard-line. A five yard return by Evan Zupancic boosted the Jumbo starting position to their 44, and set the stage for 40 yard drive that ended with Rock's missed field goal in the fourth quarter.
"We made a couple of mistakes where we should have had some more points," Samko said. "We didn't give the defense enough points. We got away with one [Saturday]; we dodged a bullet. Sometimes good teams, or teams that are striving to be good teams, they miss bullets. We were fortunate. I thought it was a hell of a college football game."
And while the Jumbos will have their work cut out for them next week, they will take the field with a more confident defensive unit and a more confident team as a whole for a clash with perennial NESCAC powerhouse Williams. Tufts has salvaged just two ties against the Ephmen in the recent past - in 1988 and 1992.
"It keeps our confidence going up," Palmer said of the Trinity win. "I was a good win for the program."
@s:DEFENSE
