We defeated a strong Tufts team today 11-10 in OT. We knew they would be tough, and they did not disappoint us. The first quarter ended 2-2 with both teams getting some good opportunities. The 2nd Q was all Tufts as they outscored us 4-1. Their excellent Junior Attackman Bryan Griffin did most of the damage in the 1st 1/2, scoring 4 of their 6 goals. Ed Brown was doing a good job on him, he is just very good at shooting with no angle, tucking the ball in the net with a quick release. He definitely had us on the ropes, 4 goals in one half by an attackman is enough to shake up the best of defenses. The only goal in the second quarter was a big one for us, as Andrew Giordano exhibited the kind of confidence and aggressiveness that we needed but were not exhibiting in the half. Gio was off ball and got into a good spot, demanded the ball and stuck his shot. Their second quarter blitz definitely had us on our heels. There was not a lot of yelling and screaming at halftime, just urging the team to get off their heels and take the game to Tufts. Te team responded in the 3rd Q, outscoring Tufts 6-1, taking over on face offs, ground balls, and confidence. Much of the resurgence was led by Dave Leach, who was finally looking healthy after missing 3 games before Amherst and limping through the Amherst game with 2 assists. He scored 2 goals and had an assist in the 3rd Q. Leach's play was indicative of the improved play of the midfielders in this game. In addition to Leach's 2 goals, we received 2 goals from Aaron Herter, and 1 each from Andrew Giordano, Travis Meyer, Bob Wannop. Saraceni had 3 goals and an assist and Mark Foster had 3 assists, but we did not receive the attack scoring as we had in past games. Their goalie is incredibly unorthodox, but is effective and had 13 saves on the day, including stuffing Charley Howe on a number of occassions. More on Howe later.

The 4th Q saw Tufs outscore us, as we had some good opportunities that were denied by the Tufts goalie. They pecked away and got 2 huge goals late by their top middie, who I think is one of the better offensive players in the league. They took the 10-9 lead into the last minute of the game. We had several excellent opportunities again late in the 4th as we had a sense of urgency to get the tying goal. One of the best opportunities saw Saraceni with a great opportunity only to "ping" the inside pipe. It looked as if it might have been our last great opportunity. We were able to ride hard and get the ball back, though, and Saraceni found himself again closing on the goalie. He had Foster open on the weak side but chose to shoot himself and scored the tying goal. We had a great opportunity to score again in the last 44 seconds, but Howe was again denied. I think he was shooting to good spots, but the unorthodox goalie had his number.

We opened the OT with Gio winning the face off and creating a fast break opportunity, only to see Howe denied by the goalie. We retained possession, though, but an attempted feed was deflected, Tufts cleared the ball and called a time out when they crossed the midline. We had a nice defensive possession with Krieger making 2 saves. We garnered possession, and called a time out with 20+ seconds remaining in the OT. Of course we spent the OT mapping out a couple of play opportunities only to have them come out in a zone. We had prepared well for the zone, we quickly got into our zone pattern, made a couple quick passes, leading to Charley Howe with the ball on the low, right hand pipe. After having been stuffed on numerous opportunities earlier in the game, Howe snuck one through the "5 hole" for the victory. I told the team it was a great example of not quitting or losing faith in yourself, and if he had hung his head due to earlier mistakes he would not have won the game for us.

Up next is Bowdoin on Saturday at Bowdoin, so it does not get easier.