The football team earned its second straight victory over a tough NESCAC opponent with an 18-0 shutout of Colby College on Saturday.
Junior quarterback Jason Casey threw two touchdown passes and senior Tim Mack ran for 91 yards to lead the Jumbos. The offense was overshadowed by a dominating performance by the Tufts' defense, which held Colby to just 189 total yards and forced 5 turnovers.
Neither team scored in the first quarter, but Tufts made up for it in the second, scoring on an eight-yard touchdown pass from Casey to senior Matt Cerne. Senior Mark Tilki set up the score with a 57-yard punt return to the Colby 2-yard line. Later in the quarter, Tilki set up the other Jumbo touchdown with a 40-yard interception return. The pick was one of two for Tilki on the day. The interception led to a ten-yard scoring pass from Casey to Mack on fourth and goal.
That touchdown gave Tufts a 12-0 lead, as the team was unable to convert the extra point on either of their two scores.
Senior Marcellus Rolle kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter, to give the Jumbos a 15-0 halftime lead. Junior Donovan Brown set up the field goal with one of his two interceptions on the day.
Tufts scored the only other points of the game late in the third quarter on Rolle's second field goal. The field goal, a 32-yarder, was Rolle's eighth on the season, putting him one away from tying the school's single season record.
The Tufts defense shut down Colby's All-American running back Aaron Stepka, holding him to just 46 yards on 19 carries. Defensive coordinator John Walsh said the team went into the game focused on stopping the run.
"It's the second straight week we faced an All-American tailback, and I thought we did a good job on him," Walsh said. "We mostly just played our defense, but we did put a couple more guys in the box at times. The main [thing] was just that everybody played well."
Colby's lack of success in the running game put added pressure on quarterback Justin Smith, a freshman starting in his first game for the Mules. As a result Smith struggled, throwing three interceptions.
"I think he's going to be a good quarterback, but we were able to put him in some situations that he didn't want to be in," Walsh said. "We put them in a lot of second and long, third and long situations. They had to pass a little bit more than they wanted to."
Tufts was able to incorporate junior Steve Cincotta into the offense better than in the previous game against Amherst. Cincotta, who started out the season as the team's starting running back but was injured in the third game, gained 40 yards on eight carries.
"[Mack's] been playing so well, that Steve being hurt hasn't hurt us that much," Tufts offensive coordinator Mike Daly said. "We want to get Steve a little more involved. I think they make a great 1-2 combination. It just makes us that much tougher to defend."
Daly was also impressed by the play of Casey, who has taken every snap of the last two games after sharing the position with sophomore Casey D'Annolfo early in the season.
"We made the decision to go with one guy because the offense had been a little bit inconsistent," Daly said. "Having just one guy back there has definitely made us more consistent, and it's made him play better too. Now he can get into the flow of the game and not have to worry about being taken out."
The victory pushed the Jumbos' record to 5-2, while Colby dropped to 4-3. Tufts has a chance to stretch its winning streak to three straight games, which would be its second three game win streak of the season, next week at home against Middlebury.
"We have had two straight good weeks, but we can't get too high," Walsh said. "We've just got to get ready to practice and move on to the next game."
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