On Saturday afternoon, the Colby men's lacrosse team truly had no answer for Bryan Griffin.
The sophomore attack man had a hand in seven of Tufts' 11 goals, with five assists and two scores of his own, leading the Jumbos to an 11-9 victory over the White Mules.
Griffin had a goal and two assists in a game breaking 4-0 Tufts run in the second half that put the Jumbos up for good.
"I thought that Griffin was the difference today," Colby coach Rob Quinn said. "He's a better feeder than I thought he was. We tried to shut him off with the short stick and deny him opportunities to go to the cage, but it didn't work much in the second half."
Senior tri-captain Chris Kollar had three goals on the day, and freshman Billy Granger had two goals and an assist in his first collegiate start. Granger was starting in place of Tufts sophomore points-leader David Taylor, who missed the game due to ROTC commitments.
Colby senior tri-captain Barron Butler led the Mules with two goals and three assists on the day.
Tufts took a 6-3 lead into halftime after Griffin scored his first goal of the day unassisted with six seconds left in the first half.
Colby wasted little time coming back in the second half, as junior Joshua Cleaver netted an unassisted goal just eight second into the half to pull the Mules to within two.
Exactly one minute later, a goal from Colby freshman Andrew O'Connell-Shevenell made the score 6-5. And with 7:18 to go in the third quarter, Cleaver scooped up a botched Tufts clear in front of the net, and shoveled a shot past senior Mike Terrasi to tie the game at six a piece.
"We definitely got a little worried," Griffin said. "It's not good to see something like that coming out in the second half -- to switch from us scoring with seconds left in the second quarter to them coming out and scoring three. It was a huge momentum switch, but we were able to get it back."
Tufts freshman midfielder Mike O'Brien did his part in regaining that momentum with an unassisted tally with 4:33 left in the third quarter to once again give Tufts the lead at 7-6.
Griffin then continued to do what he does best, and found Granger at 3:36 and senior Dan Kramer at 3:09 to stretch the Jumbos lead to three at 9-6.
Less than a minute into the fourth, Granger repaid the favor and found Griffin in front of the goal, where he went top shelf on Colby goaltender Matthew LaPaglia.
Kollar added his third goal of the day, but Colby would notch three more to make the game close. However, this barrage of goals proved to be too little too late, as Tufts emerged with its third NESCAC victory of the season, and improved its record to 6-2 (3-1). Colby fell to 2-6 overall and 0-6 in NESCAC play.
The Tufts' zone defense, which has been so effective all season, was once again key to the team's success against Colby. Sophomore goalie Luke Chicco got the start in net and made nine saves in the first half before Tufts coach Mike Daly replaced him with senior Mike Terrasi, who racked up six saves and earned the victory.
"Luke's our guy, no question. He's our starting goalie," Daly said. "But it's a long season and he's been getting absolutely pounded. Terrasi played today because we wanted to get Luke some rest."
With periodic rain and an already muddy field making playing conditions less than ideal, the Jumbos secured one of their most important victories of the year, after dropping their first conference game to Middlebury earlier in the week.
"Without a doubt we were fired up for this game," Griffin said. "You lose a game in the NESCAC, you can't lose two in a row. You've gotta come back and get the next one."
Kramer agreed. "It was sloppy today, but our team has more character and more heart than it has in the past," he said. "We were more resilient. We made a few mistakes but we bounced right back and kept rolling."
Tufts travels to Amherst on Wednesday to take on the Lord Jeffs, who are tied with the Jumbos for third in the NESCAC with a 3-1 conference record following an overtime loss to Wesleyan on Saturday. The Jumbos' game against Williams, which was rained out two weekends ago, has yet to be rescheduled.
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