Senior tailback Will Forde lifted the football team to a comeback 20-14 victory in its first game of the season against Wesleyan Saturday, rushing for a career high 133 total yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries. Tufts as a team posted 247 gained yards from the rush.
Forde scored the Jumbos' first points of the season when he scampered for a 30-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7. The senior from Hyde Parke, Mass. found the end zone once again during the third quarter, pounding the ball in from one yard out to culminate a seven-play, 49-yard drive to open the second half.
While the Jumbos employed a running-back-by-committee approach last season, Forde is expected to shoulder a heavier load during his senior campaign. In fact, the 133 yards he accounted for on Saturday are just 66 shy of his total from all of last season, 199 net yards.
Forde will next lead the Jumbos in their homecoming game — the final of his career — against Bates on Saturday.
Sophomore Melissa Burke scored two of the Jumbos' six goals off the bench in their 6-0 victory over the Conn. College Camels Saturday at Bello Field. Burke's two goals came in the second half, putting any hopes of a late Conn. College comeback to rest. The goals were Burke's first of the season.
The sophomore's strong performance, along with classmate Tamara Brown's two goals and one assist, led Tufts to its fifth win of the season, bringing its current record to 3-0 in the NESCAC and 5-0 overall as well as garnering the team the No. 12 spot in the national rankings.
Burke and the Jumbos will have their hands full next weekend, as they will fight to keep their record blemish-free against NESCAC foe Bates on homecoming Saturday at Bello Field.
