The men's soccer team lost an exhausting, 3-2 game to the visiting Middlebury Panthers on Saturday in the opener of the NESCAC season for the two squads. In the third minute of double overtime (11:38 on the clock), Panthers' midfielder Andrew Stewart rebounded a deflected shot and drilled it in from ten yards out to give his team the victory.
Stewart's goal abruptly ended 65 minutes of scoreless play that extended back to the first half. Tufts midfielder Brian Mikel had a tally with 2:35 left in the first half, a goal that turned a 2-1 Jumbos' deficit into a 2-2 ballgame entering halftime.
"In an overtime either team can steal a victory, and they did," coach Ralph Ferrigno said. "But it's a long season."
Echoing Ferrigno's sentiments was Mikel, who stood to be a hero prior to Stewart's score. "Both teams were really tired from working the whole game," Mikel said.
"It wasn't anybody's fault. It was just kind of unlucky. We fought hard and came up on the short end."
The 65-minute scoreless drought overshadowed a high scoring first half which saw numerous shifts in momentum. The Jumbos opened the scoring in the eleventh minute when senior forward Pat Brophy notched a goal off a centering pass by junior midfielder Nathan Fash. Middlebury quickly evened the score in the 18th minute when Nathaniel Schoaff put one past Jumbos' freshman goalie Scott Conroy on a free kick from 30 yards out.
The Panthers' attack continued in the 28th minute when David Seeley retrieved a ball that had been cleared and promptly centered it for Rusten, who notched his second goal of the contest.
"It was a good game between two well matched teams," Ferrigno said. "We did a good job early but then when they equalized it put them into it."
Late in the first half, Mikel retrieved the ball from a botched free kick and scored. Mikel, stationed on the left side of the goal, beat his man and drove a shot towards the near post where it veered past the keeper.
"I think it really helped out the team. We had fallen down 2-1 and tying it up really helped," he said.
Unfortunately for the Jumbos, Mikel's goal did not have quite the impact that the team might have hoped for. Instead of propelling Tufts to a goal-filled second half that would have put Middlebury away, the Jumbos attack frequently looked lethargic. Conroy, however, was under constant pressure.
"I think [Conroy] played really well," Mikel said. "He wasn't at fault for any of the goals. It was really big of him to step up in only the second game of his collegiate career."
While the Jumbos offense wasn't clicking in the second frame, that did not stop the team from maintaining its aggressive approach. Throughout the game there was an exorbitant amount of physical contact between the two teams, as players were constantly hitting the ground. The contact reached a climax with 9:59 left in the second half, when sophomore defender Jesse Dinner was assessed a yellow card following a slide tackle. The call was a questionable one, as it appeared that Dinner was going after the ball.
Despite looking less polished than they had in the first half, the Jumbos still had opportunities to put the game away. Late in the first overtime, senior tri-captain Brad Stitchberry appeared to have a breakaway chance, but his attack was thwarted as he approached the Middlebury defense.
"We knew there were less than 30 second left," Ferrigno said. Stitchberry "maybe tried to do something difficult when he had other options - but I wouldn't fault him."
One area that Ferrigno hopes to improve on is corners, as Middlebury had 13 corner kicks as compared to only seven for the Jumbos. Interestingly, while Middlebury dominated corners, Tufts managed to outshoot the Panthers by an 11 to ten margin.
"If you look at shots, it was even," Ferrigno said. "They were dangerous at corners."
As is to be expected following a loss, neither the coach nor the players were particularly pleased with the outcome. But they weren't overly distressed by the defeat, either.
"It's early [in the season], so a lot needs to be improved. But we are stressing that whether you win lose or draw, you put it behind you and look towards the next game," Ferrigno said. "A lot of players did quite well. I don't know if one player was a standout but they all did well."
The Jumbos continue their season with a non-conference home game against MIT on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
