Tufts bests Middlebury in season opener

In its season opener on Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team defeated the Middlebury Panthers by a score of 17-10. For the defending champion Jumbos, the game was the first step in its quest to win back-to-back titles.

The Jumbos entered the game as heavy favorites as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation and five-time defending NESCAC champions. Going against a formidable opponent, Middlebury more than put up a fight. The Panthers jumped in front early, getting two goals from junior attackman Jon Broome and another from junior attackman Tim Giarrusso.

Middlebury's quick strikes put Tufts into a quick 3-0 hole just under nine minutes into the game. The Jumbos fought back and cut the deficit, but still trailed 6-4 at halftime.

“First and foremost we want to give Middlebury a lot of credit they are a great team and came out with energy and a great game plan," junior midfielder Sawyer Dew told the Daily in an email. "We started out maybe a little slower than we wanted maybe because of that first-game anxiety coming into play. We were so fired up to play it may have hurt us.”

According to junior attackman John Uppgren, the Panthers effectively took advantage of some of the Jumbos' lapses.

“We got away from some of our fundamentals and Middlebury was able to capitalize on our mistakes,” Uppgren told the Daily in an email.

Tufts came out firing to start the second half, both literally and figuratively. The Jumbos scored the first three goals of the third quarter to take their first lead of the game at 7-6.

The two teams traded goals and, with 12:37 remaining, a Panthers’ strike made it 10-9 in favor of the Jumbos. That was as close as Middlebury would get for the rest of the game.

Tufts scored seven unanswered goals in a five-and-a-half minute span to stretch its lead all the way to 17-9 with just over five minutes left in the game.

“We were able to really raise the energy level and that helped start us on our run in the third and fourth quarter,” Uppgren said.

The final ticks of the clock were a mere formality, with the game all but locked up for the Jumbos.

“I thought that once we got back to the basics and calmed down things started moving in our direction," Dew said. "We were winning the 3v3s on the face-offs, shooting better and our defense played very well.”

Over the course of the second half, Tufts outshot Middlebury 40-17 and outscored them 13-4.

The game’s leading scorer, however, was a Panther: Broome paced Middlebury with five goals.

Uppgren led the way for Tufts offensively, compiling four goals to go along with two assists. Senior co-captain attackman Cole Bailey and junior midfielder Garrett Clarke each found the back of the net three times, with Bailey adding an assist as well.

Junior midfielder Conor Helfrich dominated in the face-off circle, winning 20 of his 30 attempts there and corralling 11 ground balls.

“[It was a] great team win on Saturday," Bailey told the Daily in an email. "[We] started off slower than we anticipated, but [we] have to applaud Middlebury for coming out with more energy to start the gam. Our team remained calm after going down and continued our style of play. Shots started to fall in the second half and the entire team did a great job of winning the loose ground balls."

Middlebury played a good game and a very strong first half, but it could not hold off Tufts’ offensive surge in the second half. The Jumbos got back to their desired style of play and were able to dominate the third and fourth quarters at the snow-surrounded Bello Field.

“Once we settled and just executed the fundamentals we started playing Tufts lacrosse,” Dew said.

The Jumbos will remain at home and begin their out of conference schedule on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. when they play host to the Keene State Owls.