Tufts got up early and never trailed Saturday in a 9-2 victory over Trinity, its second straight 9-2 NESCAC win. Off to a 5-0 start, the Jumbos turned in a great team performance to improve to 2-0 in the conference.
Juniors Billy Granger, Michael Hughes, and Dane Carillo each had two goals, and 12 Jumbos had points in the win. The balanced scoring was important for Tufts, who was playing without its leading scorer, senior tri-captain and two-time conference player of the year Bryan Griffin.
"It's great when in any given game you've got two or three different guys who have stepped up," Clarke said. "We've got seven or eight guys who can come in on offense and score goals, and it makes us a better, more dominant team."
Tufts scored the first six goals of the game, the last of those coming from Hughes with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter. Trinity finally scored with under four minutes to go in the half, but the Jumbos answered with another goal to take a 7-1 lead into halftime.
The score stayed at 7-1 until senior Casey D'Annolfo scored with just over two minutes to play in the third. Junior David Harty picked up an assist on the play after a great defensive play. More than 11 minutes would go by before either team scored. Trinity picked up its second goal with 6:40 to go in the fourth quarter and Hughes scored his second goal of the game with just under five minutes to go to wrap up the scoring.
The Jumbos came up with a great defensive showing for the second straight game. Trinity managed just eight shots on goal, with senior goalie Andy Starr coming up with six saves.
"[The defense playing well] has been really important," Clarke said. "The defense has been playing great all year, and with all the new defensive guys we have, it's been great. And with that balance, when one part of the team is struggling, the other one's winning games for us."
Clarke and the offense deserve a lot of the credit for the team's defensive success, as for long stretches of Saturday's game they held the ball and kept it out of the hands of the Trinity offense.
"We're always looking to score," Clarke said. "But the more we have the ball, the fewer chances they have to put up points. Once we get a lead, sometimes our best defense is keeping the ball. It gives our defense a chance to rest, and then when they have to, they come up with stops."
Tufts was coming off a victory over the then 12th-ranked Amherst Lord Jeffs, but showed few signs of deflating after such a big win.
"It's easier to get up for the big games with Amherst, Middlebury, and Wesleyan," Clarke said. "But we know that it's a NESCAC game, and all of those games are going to be good. We're going into it with the mentality of just taking one game at a time."
Griffin, who suffered a non-contact knee injury against Amherst, said he will return "as soon as possible."
"Hopefully with the brace I'm getting and with the physical therapy that I'm doing I'll be back sooner than expected," Griffin said.
In his absence, much of the offensive onus will fall to Clarke, who joined Griffin on the preseason All-American team.
"Obviously [Griffin's injury] makes it a lot tougher on the offense; we don't have our go-to guy," Clarke said. "But no one guy is trying to do too much. Again, we have seven or eight guys who are capable of being productive, so that's how we're going to approach it. We're just going to keep working and playing hard."
The Jumbos, ranked fourth in the nation by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, have their first two road NESCAC games this week, Wednesday at Bowdoin and Saturday at Williams.
