After a 13−10 defeat of Western New England College last Tuesday, the men's lacrosse team — ranked No.6 in the latest national poll — held an all−time school−best record of 10−0 as it traveled to New London, Conn. for a Saturday match−up with national No. 8 Connecticut College, the only other conference team with an undefeated mark.
Saturday's game was a clash of NESCAC titans, with a lot on the line: first−place position in the conference, a likely No.1 seed in the upcoming NESCAC Tournament and the ability to keep the dream of the perfect season alive. The game was a low−scoring, physical battle, but ultimately one team was able to make the crucial plays down the stretch to pull out the victory.
Unfortunately for Tufts, that team was the Camels, who prevailed at home 8−6 on the strength of five goals from senior Steve Dachille, who now with 37 goals on the year is far and away the NESCAC's leading scorer.
"They're a good team, and they made more plays than us," senior tri−captain Doug DiSesa said. "We struggled a bit with clearing the ball and gave them some second chances, but at the end of the day they just made the plays."
The Jumbos' offense, which entered the game averaging a league−high 13.6 goals per game, was kept in check and held to only six goals on the day by a Camel defense that has kept every NESCAC opponent in single digits this season. While Tufts sophomore Kevin McCormick led the team with two goals and one assist, junior DJ Hessler — who remains the NESCAC leader in points even after this game, averaging 4.27 a game — was limited to only one goal and one assist in the contest.
The Jumbos had trouble dealing with the Camels' defensive pressure and finished the game clearing successfully only 10 out of 20 times. For a team that is loaded with offensive talent and thrives in transition, opportunities to score on Saturday were few and far between.
"We didn't play the way we normally do," junior Matt Witko said. "Connecticut College limited our opportunities, and we were sloppy with the ball and didn't make the good decisions that we have to make to win."
Despite the Jumbos' turnovers, Tufts stayed close with the Camels all the way through the game. The score was tied 2−2 at the end of the first quarter, and then 4−4 at the half. In the third quarter, Dachille opened up the scoring with a bullet at the 9:25 mark before the Jumbos tied it again on a McCormick goal assisted by junior Tom Butterfield−Bragg. The Camels scored the next two goals — including a crucial insurance goal from Dachille early in the fourth — to turn the score 7−5 in their favor.
The Jumbos refused to fold late and made a final−minute push to keep their 2010 record unblemished. After McCormick fired one home on an extra−man opportunity with 58 seconds remaining, Tufts had one final chance to send the game to overtime. But in a play that encapsulated the Jumbos' struggles all day, an attempted clear was intercepted by Camels senior Sean Driscoll, who beat sophomore Jumbo goalkeeper Steven Foglietta back to the cage to drill home the game−clinching goal.
"[The key was] clearing, throwing and catching — the most fundamental part of the game," DiSesa said. "Our sticks weren't where they needed to be, and we weren't executing."
"The story of the game was that they are a good team, but we can beat them," Witko added. "We just have to make more plays next time."
Dachille's scoring has been crucial to the Camels' success this season. The senior's 37 goals on the year are more than twice as many as the second−highest scorer on the Camels' roster. Tufts is more balanced, featuring five players who have scored 15 or more goals in 2010, ranging from Hessler's 22 to McCormick's 15.
The Jumbos' defense knew what to expect from the Camels: that they would run their offense through their playmaker Dachille. On Saturday, however, Conn. College's imbalanced offensive attack trumped Tufts' more balanced approach.
"He's one of their top players, and they had a game plan against us, which was to get him the ball," Witko said. "They executed that, and we let him have some opportunities, and he took advantage of that."
DiSesa attributed Dachille's offensive explosion — the most goals that any individual player has scored against the Jumbos all season — partly to a lack of discipline from the Tufts defensive side.
"It wasn't him doing anything spectacular, but us just not sticking to fundamentals," DiSesa said. "He had some big goals … we were over−pursuing, and we had moments when we let players get top−side on us."
Even after Saturday's loss, the Jumbos still managed to clinch a NESCAC Quarterfinal game at home on May 2. The rest of Tufts' regular season will be at home as well, where the team will attempt to keep the pressure on the Camels by closing out the NESCAC season strong against familiar foes Middlebury and Bowdoin.
Up first, however, is a contest Tuesday night against non−conference opponent Endicott College, a team that Tufts dispatched last season 18−13 in a high−scoring affair. The Jumbos look forward to getting their offense back on track against a team coming off a 9−6 loss to Bowdoin last weekend.
"Endicott is a great team, great program, and we've always had fun playing them," DiSesa said. "We just need to focus on us, and take care of our issues, and everything else will fall into place."
