Jumbos two wins away from notching new program-record start

With nine wins, the No. 2 Jumbos remain undefeated so far this season and are one win away from matching their previous best starts of 10-0 in 2015 and 2010, when they won National Championships both times. For a fairly inexperienced team with a new coach, they have exceeded expectations, producing impressive score-lines against both conference and non-conference opponents.

Over the weekend, the Jumbos travelled to New London, Conn. to face off against the Conn. College Camels (4-4, 1-3 NESCAC), coming away with a 12-6 victory after sophomore attackman Danny Murphy tallied five points off a pair of goals and three assists. Murphy now leads the NESCAC in points (goals plus assists) and ranks sixth in goals scored, with 24 on the season.

Murphy opened the scoring just over five minutes into the game, followed by an unassisted goal from sophomore defenseman Arend Broekmate to jump out to a two-goal lead. Both players added their own assists in the following minutes to contribute to three more goals from senior midfielder Lucas Johnson, senior attackman Zach Richman and first-year midfielder Nick Shanks.

Each team scored twice in the second quarter, with both Jumbo goals coming from junior attackman Nico Pollack. Both goals were scored from far outside, as the Camels failed to put pressure on him. Two Camels scored on either side of Nico Pollack to stay competitive at 7-3 as the game moved into the second half.

"I was an attack wing previously on this team and got switched to midfield, so I get to dodge against short sticks a lot more, which helps my team because it draws the slide more easily," Nico Pollack said. "When I got in, I tried to take advantage of that and shoot if the slide didn’t come, or pass if it did to get the offense flowing.”

In the second half, Tufts outscored Conn. College 5-3 to secure its fourth conference win. All three goals for the Camels were scored by junior attackman Jackson Kleintz, who also picked up one earlier in the game to score four overall for his team.

All five Jumbo goals were scored by different players, with Murphy tallying one goal and two assists and Richman taking advantage of a fast break opportunity off an assist from senior co-captain Tucker Mathers. Sophomore attackmen Ben Connelly and Nick Katz both grabbed goals and senior attackman Michael Mattson added one more to round out the half for the final score of 12-6.

According to Mathers, the Camels have a very different style of play than the Jumbos.

“Conn. wants to get the ball and hold it for a minute to get the timer because they haven’t initiated offense, then they’ll take a possession shot," Mathers said. "They’re basically trying to eat up as much clock as they can. It’s really different from how we play, because we like to play fast."

Junior keeper Robert Trieber stood out against Conn. College, saving six of eight shots that came his way during the second half. He now leads the NESCAC with the fewest goals against, followed closely behind by sophomore goalkeeper Ben Shmerler. Despite having graduated one of Div. III’s best goalies last season, Alex Salazar (LA '16), the Jumbos have had no trouble stepping up to fill his shoes.

On Tuesday, the Jumbos nearly tripled the score of their opponents, the Western New England (WNE) Golden Bears, winning 22-8 in a non-conference match-up. Fourteen Jumbos found the net on Wednesday, the most in one game so far this season.

Again, Murphy led in points with one goal and five assists for six total points, followed closely by Katz, who scored four goals as the game’s high scorer. Katz and Richman scored early, but the Golden Bears answered with two to even the score. Then, junior midfielder Frank Hattler rolled the crease to score a low angle shot, but WNE scored two further to take the lead. Despite a man-up goal from Connelly, the Golden Bears added another to end the quarter with a 5-4 advantage.

The second quarter saw a drastic turnaround, as Tufts scored nine goals compared to only one from WNE, four of which came in less than two-and-a-half minutes. Lucas Johnson, Richman and Katz each netted two, the most impressive of which was Richman’s second goal, which came after Murphy shot down WNE’s clear before they reached the halfway line and fed the ball to Richman who had been left unmarked on the crease.

Broekmate took Shmerler’s clear all the way to WNE’s goal, where he was completely undefended and had an easy shot. Murphy and Mattson each had their own, while Murphy tallied two further assists.

“I don’t think anything specific changed [going into the second quarter]," Nico Pollack said. "We just tried to do the same thing. We might have just gotten off to a slow start [in the first quarter], but we knew that if we kept doing what we knew how to do it would work eventually.”

In the third quarter, the Jumbos completely shut out the Golden Bears, scoring five goals and conceding none.Each goal came from a different player and three of the five were unassisted because the WNE defenders did not slide, allowing the Tufts attackmen to put shots on goal. Robert Trieber was only forced to make one save the entire quarter after WNE mustered only two shots in 15 minutes.

Despite an 18-6 advantage with 15 minutes left, the Jumbos did not let up, scoring four more to end the game with 22 versus the Golden Bears' eight. Three of the four goals were scored by first-years, two of which were first career goals by defenseman Jack Donohue and attackman Christopher Williams.

On Wednesday, the Jumbos face the Williams Ephs at home on Bello Field. The Ephs are 2-2 in the NESCAC right now, and with the Jumbos having produced dominant scores against them last year during the regular season and the NESCAC semifinals, Tufts is the favorite to win.