The men's soccer team rode an offensive onslaught to snap its two-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over Plymouth State Tuesday night on Bello Field. In a game that witnessed 44 total shots, the Jumbos received offensive contributions from all over the field with four different players netting goals.
"We looked dangerous and we certainly took our chances ... we were a lot more assertive with the ball, and I just thought that we worked hard," coach Ralph Ferrigno said. "It was to-and-fro in the first half, it was end to end, but I think that we had a little more in our tank and I think that showed in the first half."
Both teams came out fast after an hour-long delay due to late-arriving officials. Tufts junior goalie Pat Tonelli stymied some early Panther runs, initiating some quick chances for the Jumbos. Sophomores Alex Lach and Ron Coleman each had good looks early, but both were turned away by Plymouth senior goalie Tyler Shute. In the 11th minute, Tufts junior tri-captain Bear Duker nailed a rebound over the crossbar from outside the box.
In a half that seemed to present endless chances for both teams, the Panthers broke through first. On senior Semir Mehmedovic's corner kick in the 21st minute, freshman Dre Cabral poked a header past a lunging Tonelli. Tufts managed to shake it off though, and just four minutes later, senior tri-captain Peter DeGregorio moved up from his defensive position to nab a nice pass from Lach at the top of the box.
In the 31st minute, Mehmedovic almost struck again, sending a stylish, swerving free kick through the Tufts box, but the Panthers couldn't capitalize. Mehmedovic proved to be the Panthers' biggest weapon, making dangerous runs all over the place, but Tonelli and the solid Jumbo back line managed to keep him off of the scoreboard.
Three minutes into the second half, Lach again initiated a scoring drive, this time sending a ball down the left side of the field to sophomore Pat Doherty, who buried the ball low past the keeper for what would end up being the decisive score. The Jumbos were not done, however, and in the 66th minute freshman Matt Blumenthal put on a dribbling display in the Plymouth box that culminated in a hard shot just out of Shute's reach.
"I told him to play it back, just slow it down," Lach said. "And he was open one-on-one, and he got it and put it in."
In the 78th minute, the squad put an exclamation point on the impressive non-conference win. A corner kick from Blumenthal rattled around the six-yard box and landed at the feet of junior Dan Schoening, who quickly deposited it past Shute for his team-leading fourth goal of the season.
Tufts credited its 4-1 win to a more assertive offense following consecutive zero-goal performances against Bates and Amherst.
"We picked up the intensity a little bit," junior midfielder Ari Kobren said of the Jumbos' second-half scoring outburst. "We realized that we really needed to win this game. Everyone got really into it."
"Against Bates we came out really slow in the second half, so we wanted to just change that around," DeGregorio said.
After taking care of business against a mostly overmatched Plymouth squad, the Jumbos will now set their sights on Saturday's matchup at Middlebury, the defending Div. III national champion, currently undefeated and ranked No. 4 in the nation.
"We've got nothing to lose against Middlebury," DeGregorio said. "We're going to go in and pull off an upset against the national champions."
"Everybody's really excited to go up there," Kobren said. "We really want to prove to the league that we can take it to the national champs."
