For the third straight match, the men's soccer team needed extra periods to determine a winner. The difference on Tuesday night was that the team, behind a senior quad-captain midfielder Ron Coleman goal, finally came out on top, capturing a crucial 1-0 victory in double overtime against Conn. College, a win that guaranteed them a spot in the NESCAC tournament.
"We've had bad luck in overtime this season and it's just great to have such an emotional victory," senior quad-captain midfielder Chris Flaherty said. "It's a real momentum change from what the past couple games have been, and it was very inspiring."
With less than three minutes remaining in overtime, senior forward Ben Green whipped in a free kick and Coleman streaked through the box, rose to meet the ball and buried it inside the far post to claim the victory. It was Coleman's second game-winning goal of the year, the first coming on Sept. 25 against Wesleyan.
Both teams had a number of chances throughout the second half and into the overtime periods, but the two keepers were up to the challenge. Tufts' junior goalie Alan Bernstein recorded seven saves to preserve the shutout, Tufts' second in as many games. The back-to-back NESCAC shutouts drop the team's goals against average in-conference play to a paltry .52.
"Bernstein's been great and the combination of him and the defense has been working well and they've been really committed to defending," Flaherty said.
"It's tough playing a third straight overtime game but the good news for us is that we're playing with a deep bench," he continued. "There's a lot of guys that can come in and play some good minutes so we all have no problem working hard and putting it all on the field."
The win moved Tufts (5-5-2, 3-2-2 in NESCAC, 11 points) into fifth place in the NESCAC, a mere point behind fourth-place Amherst (7-1-3, 3-1-3 in NESCAC, 12 points) with two games to play. As mentioned earlier, the victory also clinched a conference tournament berth for the Jumbos, as under no permutations will Bates or Conn. College surpass Tufts in the standings.
"Now that we know we're in the playoffs we can keep climbing the ladder," Flaherty said. "We have two big games against Bowdoin and Williams left and hopefully we sneak some points out against some good teams. We're pretty confident in the way we're playing that we get a win against either of those teams and get a potential home playoff game."
