Rain Steers Clear of Jumbos' Parade this Spring Break

The Tufts men's lacrosse team improves to 5-0 in spite of eight hour bus rides, rain delays, and Stevenson All-American attackman, Jimmy Dailey.
[published in the March 28 edition of 'The Tufts Daily.']

             For the No. 1 men’s lacrosse team, the last week has been anything but a vacation. While Tufts students enjoyed spring break, the team set out on a seven-day, three-game campaign, during which they toured the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The Jumbos improved to 5-0, taking on and defeating two conference rivals and the No. 2 team in the nation. 

Saturday, the Jumbos traveled to NESCAC rival Williams. The Purple Cows proved no match for a tired but well-conditioned Tufts squad. After sophomore midfielder Will Stewart gave Williams the first lead, Tufts scored six times in a row and never again trailed in the contest, which they won 12-6.

Tufts was led by senior quad-captain attackmen Ryan Molloy and D.J. Hessler, who each had three goals; Molloy also had three assists, while Hessler had two, and freshman attackman Jack McDermott netted his first goal of the season.

Junior goalkeeper Steven Foglietta posted 17 saves and senior quad-captain defenseman Alec Bialosky led the Jumbos with six groundballs, while defenders, junior Mark Findaro and freshman Dan Alles, tied junior midfielder Nick Rhoads with four.

The previous Sunday, the team traveled to Baltimore, Md., to take on the No. 2 Stevenson Mustangs. Come gameday, the matchup, set to begin at 4 PM, was postponed to an 8 PM start at Towson University’s Johnny Unitas Stadium.

The plan, intended to avoid afternoon storms, backfired as weather conditions deteriorated and an onslaught of thunderstorms set on shortly before the opening whistle was set to blow.

After two additional delays, the players took the field and at 9:38 PM, Rhoads and the Mustangs’ senior Ray Witte stepped up to the X.

“In the locker room we tried to not let [the delays] affect us at all. Personally I was pretty antsy because we’d been sitting there so long but everyone handled it pretty well,” sophomore defensive-midfielder Sam Diss said.

 “We stretched two or three times inside,” he added. “So we were focused from the beginning and came out strong.”

The Jumbos went on to clinch a stunning victory, but it was not until the final seconds that the 14-13 result seemed definite. In the gritty, down-to-the-wire contest, both teams played a full sixty minutes and proved why they are the nation’s top squads.

After senior quad-captain midfielder Matt Witko kicked off scoring for an early Jumbos lead, the Mustangs responded with consecutive scores from senior attackmen Richie Ford and First-Team All-American Jimmy Dailey, who on the goal became Stevenson’s all-time leading points getter.

Early in the third quarter, Tufts held its largest lead of the game at 10-6, but Stevenson’s persistent squad remained within three points until it closed to within one on a goal from sophomore attackman Tyler Reid with 2:34 remaining.

In the final minutes, Stevenson senior midfielder Neal Barthelme and freshman midfielder Tony Rossi each rattled off shots that were denied by the post and Foglietta respectively, but a crucial man-advantage allowed the Jumbos to succeed in a game of keep-away as the clock ticked to zero.

“We knew coming into the game that it was going to be run-and-gun,” Diss said. “At the end of the game we were just playing solid [defense] on them and they were putting up shots. We wanted to make sure that those shots were the most difficult for them and the best for [Foglietta].”

“Stevenson definitely got a lot of shots off but the defense really kept them down the wings rather than letting them inside,” Foglietta added. “That made my job much easier.”

In the matchup, which concluded around 11:40 PM, Tufts’ juniors shined. Midfielder Kevin McCormick scored three goals and three assists, while classmate attackman Sean Kirwan added four goals for a then-season total of 20. Hessler and Witko tied Kirwan with three goals and an assist each.

Barthelme led the Mustangs with four goals and an assist, but Tufts’ defense produced uncharacteristic offensive struggles for Stevenson, who fired off 76 shots (to the Jumbos’ 35) in a losing effort. Foglietta posted an outstanding 24 saves, again proving himself a dominant goalkeeper in high-pressure situations.

“It was more about staying even-keeled and never getting too excited or too down,” Foglietta said. “Really after each save it was, ‘get it up the field and we’ll get the next one.’ We’re always looking forward to the next possession, the next shot, the next clear.”

The Jumbos consistently limited Dailey’s options, and the powerhouse attackman finished the contest with a single goal and three assists. Led by Bialosky, who had a team-high three forced turnovers, Tufts’ defense held off perhaps the second most prolific scoring unit in the nation.

 “We have solid poles and if a short-stick was on Dailey, we knew a slide was coming early,” Diss said. “We try to play in a way that it doesn’t really matter who’s covering who and Coach [Brett] Holm’s philosophy is that it doesn’t matter who you’re on; we trust you to play good defense on them.”

Strong play from Diss and freshmen long-poles Kane Delaney and Dan Alles supplemented defensive efforts by sophomores Sam Gardner, Matt Callahan, and John Heard, and facilitated the Jumbos’ transition game.

In a physical game won by attrition, brute force, and mental toughness, the Jumbos overcame winning just 11-of-30 faceoffs and capitalized on scoring opportunities to capture the victory.

The previous Saturday, the Jumbos hosted the Colby Mules in their second NESCAC matchup of the season, and like Wednesday, rode the successes of Kirwan and McCormick, who each tallied five goals in the effort, to a 14-9 victory at Bello Field.

Colby sophomore midfielder Ian Deveau, who had four goals and an assist on the day, gave the Mules an early 1-0 lead just 1:16 into the game, but McCormick responded with two goals of his own, and Tufts never again trailed the Mules. As the first half concluded, Tufts scored four times in the final 2:36 to pull ahead 8-2.

            Tufts struggled to possess and settle the ball for much of the game, and Colby senior tri-captain Craig Bunker captured 18 of 26 faceoffs for the Mules, but the Jumbos relied on a solid 12-save performance from Foglietta and their ability to convert on man-up opportunities in order to preserve their lead and hold on to their second in-conference win. 


[photos: Stevenson University via GoMustangs on flickr.]