The record books are going to need some serious altering after this one.
In a plot eerily similar to the football team's loss last week against Williams, Tufts on Saturday surprised an undefeated team by building up a halftime lead. But also reminiscent of the Williams game was Tufts' (1−5) second− half collapse to unbeaten Amherst in a 70−49 loss at Pratt Field.
The lopsided end result hardly tells the whole story for Tufts, however. Senior quarterback Anthony Fucillo broke the NESCAC single−game passing record with 503 yards — becoming the first player in league history to top the 500−yard mark — and led the team's energetic, first−half surge with 395 yards through the first 30 minutes, resulting in a 35−28 halftime advantage.
Fucillo, who was named the NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts, also set a new Tufts record for passing yards in a season with 1,880 after Saturday's defeat.
As a team, the Jumbos put up 671 total yards and 596 passing yards, both new NESCAC records. The 119 combined points from the game were the most in conference history.
Fucillo acknowledged the bittersweet nature of an impressive achievement in a losing effort.
"It's nice to have some records, but I expect whoever the quarterback is next year to break those," he said. "I think records don't mean much when you don't win."
It seemed as though the Jumbos' offensive fireworks would lead them to victory when they took a 14−0 lead against the defending NESCAC champions in the first quarter. Fucillo completed his first six passes to three different receivers to open the game, leading Tufts on a 76−yard march down the field, which ended in a 1−yard quarterback sneak into the end zone. The touchdown was the Jumbos' first rushing score of the season.
After senior Pat Bailey scored on another 1−yard run to push the Jumbos' lead to 14−0, the Lord Jeffs got on the board with junior Andre Gary's 36−yard punt return for a touchdown. Throughout the day, Amherst outplayed Tufts on special teams — in addition to Gary's return touchdown, the home team scored on a fake field goal and commanded solid field position as a result of short Tufts punts.
The two teams traded scores early in the second quarter before senior receiver Greg Stewart turned a quick screen into a 28−14 Jumbos lead with 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Amherst was in man−to−man coverage on the play because of a blitz sent to pressure Fucillo.
"Greg got off his guy real quick," Fucillo said. "Once he caught it, there was literally no one there because they had blitzed everyone else."
The Jumbos' 35 points by the break was more in the first half than any other team had in a full game against the Lord Jeffs this season. What kept them from running away with the game were the defense's difficulties in handling a change−up in Amherst's offense.
The Lord Jeffs run a version of the blur offense, similar to what Div. I Oregon has utilized to great effectiveness in surging to its national No. 1 ranking in the AP poll. In Amherst's four scoring drives in the third quarter, it averaged just over 17 seconds per snap, a blistering pace.
"They were doing a lot of no−huddle," junior defensive lineman Donnie Simmons said. "We're used to that in practice, but for some reason it was happening quicker. Trying to get the call from the sideline, then get in stance, then make adjustments — it was really tough."
"The interesting thing about that is that that is what our offense is like," Fucillo said. "There shouldn't be any excuses for not being ready for it because they see it every day in practice."
Tufts' offense bailed the defense out in the first half, but Amherst outscored the team 28−0 in a third quarter that broke the game wide open. The onslaught began when junior running back Eric Bunker caught a 15−yard pass from senior Alex Vetras — who became Amherst's leader in career passing yards with 4,979 after Saturday's game — and tied the score at 35. Bunker finished the contest with 23 carries for 194 yards and four total touchdowns.
On their next drive, the Lord Jeffs found great success on the ground, pounding out 10 running plays for 65 yards and eventually finding the end zone on junior Femi Oyalowo's 7−yard scoring run. Oyalowo ended the game with 104 yards on 16 carries and was part of Amherst's rushing attack that amassed 367 yards on 55 carries.
"The first half they were trying to pass, run, trying to figure us out," Simmons said. "After that, they were just like, ‘OK, we're just going to run it down their throat.' And we couldn't stop it."
After the third quarter left Amherst up by 21 points, the Jumbos came within two scores of the Lord Jeffs when Fucillo went 8−for−8 and threw an 11−yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Billy Mahler to end a 58−yard drive. Mahler was one of four Tufts players to catch touchdown passes on the high−scoring afternoon, which included sophomore Dylan Haas' 205 yards, 14 short of the Tufts single−game record.
Amherst quickly shattered Tufts' faint glimmer of hope by scoring on its next two possessions to make the score 70−42 and put the game out of reach, midway through the final quarter.
With the loss, the Jumbos stretched their losing skid to five games, but the offense's performance, especially its production in the first half, was a high point of the season. Tufts will hope to build a rhythm of its own and end the season on a positive note when it plays Colby at home next week — the final home game for the seniors — before hitting the road to take on Middlebury in the last game of the season.
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Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article misattributed the quote, "The interesting thing about that is what our offense is like. There shouldn't be any excuses for not being ready for it because they see it every day in practice." The article attributed the quote to Anthony Fucillo; it should have been attributed to Donnie Simmons.
