In the last two weeks, the football team has gone up against the top two teams in the NESCAC, Williams and Amherst. Both times, the Jumbos outplayed their opponents, and looked to be in position to win near the end of the game. But both times, luck did not seem to be on Tufts' side, as costly mistakes down the stretch translated into two straight losses.
"If you don't take advantage of opportunities, you won't win," coach Bill Samko said. "I told our team not to feel sorry for itself, I don't feel sorry for myself. We could have won the game, but we didn't take advantage of opportunities."
For the second week in a row, Tufts ran the ball effectively and held the advantage in first downs, time of possession, and passing yards. Not only that, the Jumbos also out-gained Amherst, 337-223, ran nearly twice as many plays (82-45), and snapped Amherst's six-quarter shutout streak.
"We thought that we matched up well with them," junior running back Keven Kelley, who rushed for 155 yards, said. "We were just going to go right at them and didn't think of them as the best defense. We thought our guys were just as good."
The hosts also played their own version of the spoiler, scoring the first touchdown the Lord Jeffs have given up all year when Kelley went in from one yard out with 11:21 to go in the third.
"It felt good," graduate defensive lineman Everett Dickerson said. "At that point it was like, now we're rolling, it's time to win. It's time to win the game."
The Jumbos continued to roll for the rest of the first half, tacking on a Howie Rock field goal with 5:07 to go to take a 10-7 lead to into the locker room. After Kelley's score, Amherst countered with a touchdown of its own two series later to knot the score at seven. But then sophomore defensive back Mark Tilki took the ensuing kickoff back 48 yards, and junior quarterback Scott Treacy ran for another 12, and four plays later Rock was good from 38 yards out.
Once again the game was a story of two halves as the Jumbos could not continue to hold down Amherst after the intermission. Just like in the Williams game (Tufts led, 14-13 at the half) Tufts entered the second half with the lead, but then turned the ball over twice on critical possessions and ultimately sealed its own fate.
"We got down and needed big plays [at the end] and just didn't get them," Kelley said. "We just didn't execute when we needed to."
Against Williams, Treacy was intercepted twice in the second half, with the first pick ending a lengthy drive and the second halting the Jumbos' attempt at the two-minute drill with 1:20 to play. And against Amherst, a 6,000-member Homecoming crowd was silenced not once, but twice, after a Kelley fumble late in the third and a Treacy interception with 3:44 to go in the contest.
The first turnover was more painful, as Kelley's fumble came on the Lord Jeff one at the beginning of the fourth quarter after an eight-minute drive and the Jumbos still leading, 10-7. Amherst's Jay Hutchins picked up the ball and returned it 24 yards, inciting a 7-play, 75-yard drive that lasted just 1:55 and ended with a touchdown and the Lord Jeff's first lead of the game at 14-10.
Treacy's interception was another stinging blow. Tufts had the ball on the Amherst 13 and was in the midst of another lengthy drive, poised to take back the lead. But Treacy's pass sailed towards the end zone and into the hands of Lord Jeff Paul Miceli.
Also reminiscent of the Williams game was the fact that the Jumbos had another stab at the two-minute drill, after an Amherst punt with 22 seconds to play. This time, it was not an interception, but the clock itself that ended any chance of last second heroics. Treacy completed two passes and the Jumbos got off three plays and appeared to be lining up for another before the officials signaled that time had expired.
"The defense gave the offense a chance to win," Dickerson said. "But we just ran of out of time. That's basically what happened. We can't give up now, though. We have two more games left, that's not the end of our season right there."
And with two games remaining against Colby and Middlebury, the Jumbos appear to be all but locked into a third place finish in the conference, their second top three finish since 1998. But for another year at least, Tufts will close its season without defeating either Amherst or Williams.
