They will remember how close they came - and how quickly they let it slip away.
Up by three goals with 15 minutes left and poised to pull off a shocking upset of second-ranked Middlebury yesterday, the men's soccer team collapsed down the stretch, surrendering three goals in the waning minutes of regulation before allowing the game-winner less than a minute into overtime and falling 4-3 to Middlebury.
In the 91st minute of the game, Middlebury senior Kellan Florio received a feed from freshman teammate David LaRocca and found the bottom right corner of the goal, beating Tufts senior goalie Matt Sullivan. The goal, which came only 55 seconds after the opening whistle of the extra frame, ended a game dominated by the Jumbos for the first 75 minutes and left Tufts in disbelief.
"I'm still in shock," junior Todd Gilbert said. "You can't say anything, you can just keep this inside of you during the off-season, and keep it inside of you every time you play, which is what I'm going to do because I don't want anything like this to happen again because it's brutal."
Down 3-0 two-thirds of the way through the second half, it was LaRocca who sparked the improbable Panther comeback, figuring in each of the four Middlebury goals. He opened the Panther scoring as he volleyed a serve from sophomore Winston Rains into the back of the net in the 76th minute to draw his team within two - still miles away from an equalizer.
LaRocca struck again only two minutes later, as he and Florio combined for the first of what would be two goals, the second being the game-winner in OT. Rains worked the ball to Florio, who quickly fed LaRocca, whose shot deflected off a Jumbo defender into the back of the net. Tufts still led 3-2, but the momentum had clearly shifted as Tufts found itself in the middle of a full-fledged Middlebury onslaught.
"The last ten minutes of the game their goalkeeper must have been in our half the whole time," Sullivan said. "I think they got pretty lucky on the second goal, and that was really important for them because that's when they realized they really could come back."
With the scoreboard clock reading only 18 seconds remaining in regulation, the Jumbos' greatest fears were realized. With all 11 Panthers, including goalkeeper David Lindholm, in the Tufts penalty area, senior tri-captain John Rusten finished a pass off of LaRocca's head to tie the game at three.
"It was crazy at the end," Sullivan said. "We didn't clear the corner kick, and it got kicked around, and it went in."
With a tidal wave of Middlebury momentum heading into sudden death, the game's result seemed all but inevitable.
"After that third goal all of our heads went down," Sullivan said. "It would have taken a lot to get us through that first overtime, and that would have been really important to do, but we couldn't."
Tufts, which finished its season seventh in the NESCAC, was a heavy underdog coming into yesterday's contest, but proved to be a legitimate threat in only the second minute of the game. Sophomore Mattia Chason held the ball in the open field and adeptly drew Middlebury first half keeper Craig Hirsh out of the net before feeding classmate Ben Castellot who slid the ball into the open net.
In the 44th minute, Tufts once again found themselves beneficiaries of a free opportunity on net, as Gilbert found freshman Dan Jozwiak who buried an open shot, giving the Jumbos a 2-0 halftime advantage.
"That's probably the best we played on offense all season," Gilbert said. "We played hard the entire team."
While teams often come out flat-footed after establishing a first half lead, it was not the case for Tufts yesterday. The Jumbos held the lead for the first thirty minutes, and junior Mike Guigli added to the tally in the 74th minute of the match with a beautifully driven ball into the top-right corner of the net from 20 yards out. The goal, which made the score 3-0 Tufts, apparently awakened a sleeping giant in the 11-2-2 Panthers (7-1-2 NESCAC).
"We knew that the seedings don't matter," senior captain and goaltender Scott Conroy said. "It's about who shows up to play, and we did, and unfortunately we let it get away."
The Jumbos, who never really got rolling this fall, ended the season with an 8-6-1 mark, with all six losses coming in their lackluster 4-6 NESCAC campaign. The loss marked the final time seniors Sullivan, Conroy, and Brett Wong will appear in a Tufts uniform.
"I'm not really sure if we started to get cocky or if Middlebury just came all out at the end or what," Sullivan said. "It's pretty disappointing, because we had the game in the bag and then we lost it. I've never played in a game like that before and I don't think anyone else has either."
With Tufts' season in the books, Middlebury will move on to face third-seeded Bowdoin, who eliminated Amherst in other action yesterday, in the semifinals next Saturday, hosted by Williams. The top-ranked Ephs will meet Wesleyan, who downed Bates yesterday.
-- Ben Hoffman contributed to this article.<$>
