With two games under its belt this season, the men's lacrosse team has shown that, NESCAC or nonconference, the Jumbos will come out on top.
On Tuesday's home-opener at Bello Field against the Lasell Lasers, the nationally ranked No. 9 Tufts squad managed a resounding 20-4 victory in its second game thus far this season. With the scoring spread among 13 different players, the Jumbos showed off their depth and versatility on offense.
"Anytime you've got a whole lot of guys scoring, it just goes to show that we're not one-dimensional and we can get scoring from anyone," said junior attacker Ryan Molloy, who led the Jumbos with three goals on the game. "We prepared for Lasell like we did any other team because they're a strong program."
"It's always good to get everyone out there and get everyone a chance to play," junior attacker D.J. Hessler added. "Everyone has shown that they can score."
In the first half, the Tufts squad controlled possession from the start, notching the game's first six goals — all from different players — within 10 minutes of play. After an unassisted goal from senior tri-captain Mike Droesch put the Jumbos on the board 1-0, sophomore attacker Sean Kirwan took a feed from junior midfielder Tom Butterfield-Bragg, with Bragg following up soon after with a goal of his own on a pass from Hessler.
While Lasell junior Sam Wilcox countered with two of three Laser goals in the first half, it was not enough against a Tufts squad that blanketed the Lasell backfield with a flurry of six more goals before the half ended, putting the Jumbos up 12-3 at the intermission.
"We jumped out quick in the first five minutes, which immediately gave us the edge in the game, and we maintained it from there," Molloy said. "Offensively, I thought we did a great job spreading around the ball and scoring from a bunch of different areas. We always stress that there are no garbage games; [Lasell] still came out to play, and we did a great job keeping that in mind."
In building its substantial lead, Tufts edged out Lasell by a margin of 39-8 in shots and won 11 of 17 face-offs in the first half — and showed no sign of letting up. Just minutes into play in the second half, Kirwan netted his third and final goal of the game with an assist from senior tri-captain Eytan Saperstein, while Molloy scored back-to-back goals with the help of Hessler, who led Tufts with five assists on the day. Rounding out the third quarter, first-year attacker Andrew Fiamengo took a feed from senior tri-captain Doug DiSesa for the first goal of his collegiate career. In all, with an array of Tufts players' scoring four more goals before the end of regulation, a late resurgence by the Lasers in the final minutes of the fourth quarter wasn't enough to overcome the 16-goal deficit.
Helping the Jumbos maintain possession for the majority of the game, the defensive unit allowed just 18 shots in all and made 21 of 26 clears to keep play out of Tufts' backfield. Additionally, the Jumbos relied on three goalies — sophomore Steve Foglietta starting, junior Bryan Petillo and freshman Tyler Page — who made a combined six saves on the day. With a comfortable lead, the Tufts squad could benefit from trying out a range of players in various defensive positions.
"It's still early in the season, but our defense is really coming into its own," Molloy said. "Lasell was pretty talented on offense, but we really locked them down and our goalies only saw really solid shots. By the end we were able to get a bunch of guys in, which was really good for improving our game."
After recording their largest margin of victory since March 2009, the Jumbos look forward to their second NESCAC opponent this season, the 1-1 Colby Mules, to whom they have not lost since 2006. The Mules graduated their top-scoring player last year and sat just above .500 mark at the end of the 2009 slate. Nevertheless, the Jumbos are gearing up for an offense that includes senior Whit McCarthy, who ranked fourth in goals-per-game last season in the conference.
"Getting into NESCAC games, it's certainly important to have a lot of depth because teams won't be able to just look to this guy or that guy," Hessler said. "It's good to have an entire team instead of a few individuals.
"We've had success against Colby in the past, but they're a very young team and a very good team," he continued. "They're an up-and-coming program, so it's going to be a good game. Especially going up there to Maine, we've got to really make sure our heads are on right and we're ready to play."
Evan Cooper contributed reporting to this article.
