Four's a crowd, and the Middlebury Panthers wanted no part of it.
With the NESCAC football championship on the line in the season finale Saturday, the Panthers rode into Zimman Field with the possibility of a four-way split of the league title looming. They stood alone atop the NESCAC at 6-1, but with a trio of teams lurking at 5-2 - Williams, Trinity and the Jumbos - the Panthers needed a win to claim sole possession of the championship.
And in dramatic fashion, they got it.
With the Jumbos trailing by two scores, 21-12, and 3:36 to go in the fourth quarter, they came charging back with a relentless aerial assault. Senior Matt Russo completed 11 of 16 pass attempts in one drive, carrying the Jumbos through 17 plays for 94 yards, but draining three precious minutes off the clock.
The drive ended in a 19-yarder from Russo to wideout Stephen Black, the junior's third touchdown catch of the game. But with Tufts down 21-19 on the wrong side of the one-minute mark, the entire season came down to one onside kick from freshman Greg Stewart. And in a mad scramble that culminated in a 22-man pileup at the Jumbos' 42, the Panthers emerged with the football, their seventh win, and their first NESCAC championship in seven years.
While the de facto NESCAC title game came down to the final minute and was decided by just two extra points, Tufts coach Bill Samko was the first to admit it - his team didn't do the little things the way a championship team should.
"We didn't deserve to win the game," Samko said. "We fumbled a kickoff, we missed a couple extra points, we threw a couple interceptions. And how many balls did we drop today? I can vividly remember six. I didn't really think we deserved to win the game - we let too many things get away from us."
For Russo, the game was one to remember. In his final collegiate game, the Jumbo signal-caller threw a career-high 53 passes, the most in one game by any NESCAC quarterback in the past three years. He was most dominant on the game's final drive, consistently hitting four receivers - senior tri-captain Kevin Gleason, juniors David Halas and Az Adhanom and ultimately Black for the touchdown - with deadly accuracy.
"I thought we did a great job," Russo said. "We practice that two-minute drill every Thursday, so we were definitely prepared for it. You never know - we go and punch one in, and get the onside kick, and a couple passes and a field goal, and we win the game."
While the failed onside kick was a disappointing ending to the Jumbos' season, they had other opportunities to seal the deal. Stewart's two missed extra points, including one in the third quarter that he drilled directly into the back of his own offensive line, were definite difference-makers.
Another missed opportunity came early in the fourth quarter, when the Jumbos moved the ball to their own 45 after a pair of nice runs from senior Chris Guild. Down 21-12 with 11 minutes to play, the Jumbos faced a fourth-and-one situation with momentum going their way. Samko sent Black out to make his fourth punt of the day, drawing a chorus of boos from the Tufts bleachers.
"I really contemplated going for it there," Samko said. "But regardless, it was going to take two scores to win, and if we didn't get it there, the game's over ... But yeah, that's the one thing I wish I could take back. I wish I'd gone for it there."
Scoring opportunities were few and far between against the Panthers' defense, who finished the season as the NESCAC's leading defense, allowing just 89 points all year. Senior captain Erik Woodring was his usual dominant self, making a game-high 18 tackles to increase his season total to a league-leading 106. With the win, Woodring locked up his unprecedented third NESCAC Defensive Player of the Week honor this season. The rest of the Panthers' defense wasn't too shabby either.
"I've got to say, that was probably the best defense we've faced all year," Russo said. "I've said before that they have great speed, and they definitely lived up to that. They forced us to make some mistakes, and they covered so much ground that it was tough to run the ball on them, and pass."
The loss marks a sour end to the careers of 15 Tufts seniors. In addition to Russo, Guild, and senior tri-captains Gleason, Kevin Anderson and Adam Arsenault, the Jumbos will miss Stephen Albertine, Thomas Ames, J.B. Bruno, Jourdan Cancienne, Pete Christensen, Matt Gaylord, Derek Miller, Jason Nascimento, Nathan Scott and Dan Walsh next season.
"Right now, I'm a little disappointed," Russo said. "But as time goes on, I think I'll come to accept it. This is a step in the right direction. The last couple years, we were 2-6, then 4-4, and now we're 5-3. So we've definitely got things moving in the right direction. They've got a great core of players coming back next year, and they're learning how to win."
Sophomore Tom McManama waits in the wings to replace Russo under center, and the Jumbos have plenty of talent returning on both sides of the ball. Five of their top six tacklers will be back for another year, and the team has a strong core of talent players on offense. For a team that came within two points of a NESCAC title this fall, the wealth of returning Jumbos is an encouraging sign.
"I still love this team," Samko said. "They were playing on the last day for the conference championship and were pretty damn close, so none of my feelings have changed. I said in the locker room that I'm disappointed about the outcome of this game, but I'm not disappointed about this team, and I am excited about the future."
