Jumbos need to move up in NESCAC standings

The Tufts men's soccer team will be looking to leapfrog Trinity in the standings when they clash at Kraft Field on Saturday. The Jumbos are seventh in NESCAC with a 1-2-1 record in conference.

The Bantams, meanwhile, are tied for the fifth spot with a record of 2-2-1. Neither team has a very explosive offense which will most likely mean a tight game that comes down to the closing minutes.

The Jumbos are coming off an offensive outburst this week, where they notched three goals against a hot Salva Regina squad. They will be looking for that same type of productivity on Saturday. The key to the productivity is a variety of offensive weapons. While the Jumbos do not have one outstanding goal scorer, they have a variety of players who can finish with consistency.

The game against Salva Regina is a perfect example. Three different players scored goals. For two of those players, sophomore Ben Castellot and freshman Jon Glass, their goals were their first on the varsity level. Only two players, senior quad-captain Mike Blea and sophomore Todd Gilbert, have more than one goal for the season, with 3 and 2 respectively.

The Jumbo defense should however have a decided advantage against a Trinity offense that can be described as anemic at best. The Bantams are especially feeling the offensive loss of perennial All-New England striker Morgan Sandell, who finished with 10 goals and 8 assists last year.

Trinity is averaging a paltry one goal per game so far, and has been shut out four times already. Two of these shutouts came from NESCAC opponents. In the Bantams' 3-2 win over Connecticut College on Saturday, they netted their first goals in four games.

The fact that the game is at home is another reason why this match-up is so important. The Jumbos home record is an unimpressive 1-2-1, with their one win coming against a non-conference opponent, Endicott. Even in their victory against Endicott though, the Jumbos did not play up to their potential, as senior quad-captain Brian Mikel admitted after the game.

"We played down to their level," Mikel said. "We were a much better team but we didn't show it."

This game is a must win if the Jumbos want a winning record at home this year. Tufts has only one more home game left this year. It comes against NESCAC powerhouse Middlebury, which will probably prove a much tougher matchup than the one with Trinity.

Strangely enough, thus far they have fared much better away from what have proven to be the unfriendly confines of Kraft Field. This could serve the Jumbos well as the rest of their games will be played away from Tufts.

While both teams are coming off 3-2 victories, the Bantams will have three more days of rest than the Jumbos. As Tufts is now in the grueling middle portion of its season, the excitement of the early season has faded away. The rising number of games could presumably wear down the team. However, associate coach Andy Nelson feels that while this may be the case for most teams, in fact it will play to the Jumbos' favor.

"The work ethic of this team is really what keeps it together," Nelson said. "Everyone on the team has a very good attitude. Our conditioning is excellent and we are very rarely outworked."

In the two teams' meeting last year the Jumbos came away with an emotional overtime victory by the score of 3-2. Gilbert was the hero with two goals, including the winner in overtime. Most players from both squads will remember that game as neither team graduated a large portion of their team.