Men's soccer to face archrival Williams on Saturday

As the weather becomes more blustery, and the vibrantly colored leaves begin to fall from New England's trees, the men's soccer team is gearing up for the final stretch of its regular season.

With just five games remaining in this 2003 campaign, the Jumbos will begin a crucial week of NESCAC games on Saturday in Williamstown, Mass. versus the Williams Ephs.

"We always expect a tough game against Williams," junior quad-captain Scott Conroy said.

Last year, the Jumbos fell to Williams 0-2 at home.

However, the Ephs lost their all-time leading scorer, Alex Blake, as well as their first team All-NESCAC and All-New England back, Dylan Smith, to graduation this past spring.

Despite these losses, the Ephs are still the defending back-to-back NESCAC champions and are looking to extend their streak to three in a row. So far this season, Williams is 8-1-1 overall and sits atop the league with an undefeated 5-0-1 mark. The Ephs' only loss came in its opening match at Babson on Sept 9.

Even after Blake's graduation, Williams features one of the most potent offenses in Division III men's soccer. Tufts has been working on ways to hamper the Ephs' attack and create offensive opportunities for itself.

"[Williams has] always shown that [it] can score," Conroy said. "But we know that [its] weakness is in the back. We have been working on possessing the ball and giving it out to the wide players for crosses. This way, we can test the strength of their keeper and backs and hopefully keep the ball away from their attacking players."

For this scheme to work, Tufts will need to limit Williams senior midfielder Khari Stephenson's time of possession. Stephenson earned NESCAC Player-of-the-Year and first team All-American honors in 2002. The Jamaica native played for his country's national team over the summer and has netted ten goals already this season.

Stephenson has also been hot over the last few weeks. He scored two goals against Bates and again versus Colby in consecutive games, thus meriting NESCAC player of the week honors for the week of October 6.

In addition to Stephenson, sophomore midfielder Josh Bolton is another one of Williams' offensive weapons. Bolton is second on the squad with eight goals this season and has added two assists as well.

Tufts, however, will roll into Williams on Saturday with momentum coming off two straight wins and a week off to revitalize before this important match.

For offense versus Williams, Tufts will likely look to freshman forward and reigning NESCAC player of the week, Ben Castellot.

"Ben is a big time player," Conroy said. "He's as fast as anyone in the conference and can take anyone one on one. He stepped it up against Trinity to score two goals, but we really need him to keep up that kind output for us to notch some wins."

Notching wins will be key for the Jumbos over the next two weeks. After Williams on Saturday, Tufts will travel to Wesleyan on Tuesday. The Jumbos will then face Middlebury at home the following Saturday.

At this point in the season, league wins become more and more critical. Only the top seven out of ten teams qualify for the NESCAC post season tournament. Tufts currently sits in sixth place, but this position is likely to change depending on this week's results.

Tufts will take one game at a time in hopes of securing a playoff berth, and the first step along this road to the post season will be the Williams game.

"A win against Williams would be pretty huge," Conroy said. "It would send a message to the rest of the conference saying that we can, and will play."