With a Tufts record 604 yards of total offense on Saturday,including senior Kevin Holland's NESCAC record 22 catches for 202yards, the football team finally got its offense in synch.
But all those yards without the points on the scoreboard to showfor them adds up to frustration. Such frustration was certainly inabundance as the Jumbos fell 14-12 at Bowdoin on Saturday. The lossdrops Tufts to 1-2.
It was the Polar Bears' first win since 2002 and their firstover the Jumbos since 1997. Final score aside, Tufts dominatednearly every statistical aspect of the game, 604 yards to Bowdoin's171. 33 first downs to the Polar Bears' nine. 43:02 time ofpossession to Bowdoin's 16:58.
There is more. The offense rushed for 335 yards while Tufts'defense gave up only 82. Third down conversions, which had beenplaguing the Jumbos, came out a healthy 12 for 20.
But the truth that is as old as the game itself is thatturnovers will kill any team. The five (three interceptions, twofumbles lost) the Jumbos surrendered, compared to Bowdoin's two,tells the story.
"We just can't stop ourselves like that," said senior runningback Steve Cincotta, who had 159 yards on 32 carries. "Fiveturnovers, with three happening in the red zone, we just can't havethat."
Senior quad-captain and quarterback Jason Casey found his wholeday to be fruitful, aside from a few trips to the red zone.
His 30 completions broke the old Tufts record of 25 held by DavePiermarini since 1982. Casey's 265 yards in the air should havebeen enough. But mistakes such as the interception he threw earlyin the second quarter, which was returned for 70 yards to giveBowdoin a 7-3 lead, proved costly.
Near the end of the half, the Jumbos cut the lead to 7-6 on a24-yard boot from junior Phil Scialdoni after an 11-play, 59-yarddrive. The score remained this way until late in the third quarter,when junior Bowdoin quarterback Ricky Leclerc scrambled into theend zone to take a 14-6 lead.
Casey and the Jumbos struck back on the ensuing drive, though,orchestrating a 13-play, 70-yard drive capped off by a Casey (18rushes, 89 yards) jaunt to pay dirt.
Freshman running back Brendan Georges also had a breakoutshowing on the drive as he gained 37 of his 87 yards on the day.But the two-point effort was botched, and 14-12 was where the scorestayed.
The Jumbos had at least two more legitimate chances to put theicing on the cake of a great drive, but execution again was shaky.Casey was intercepted at the Bowdoin two-yard line with 2:19remaining after a stellar 12-play, 70-yard drive.
The last chance the Jumbos had at the end of the game wasthwarted when, with the ball at the Polar Bears' 35, the refereesruled that Holland fumbled the ball rather than not catching it.This closed the book on what was nothing short of an agonizing dayfor the down-on-their-luck Jumbos.
"When you have the ball for 43 minutes, you have to do somethingwith it, and we just didn't do enough to get it in the end zone,"Cincotta said.
But while the end result was far from what Tufts would haveimagined it to be given the dominance it displayed, there aresilver linings.
The fact of the matter is that in this record setting day, theJumbos climbed out of the collective offensive funk that hadcharacterized both the Wesleyan and Bates games.
"We gained a lot of confidence in our ability to move the ball,whether in the air or on the ground," Cincotta said. "We need tocarry that confidence into this week's game."
That confidence will be needed this weekend as the Jumbos travelto play 3-0 Trinity. While Bowdoin has not won since 2002, Trinityhas not lost since 2002. Cincotta sees hope for the Jumbos.
"We just have to play our game, not theirs," he said.
