Box Score ALLENTOWN, PA - The Tufts University men's soccer team scored in the first minute of play and made it stand for a dramatic 1-0 victory over #1-ranked Messiah College in the NCAA Quarterfinals today at Muhlenberg College. The win advances the Jumbos into the NCAA "Final Four" on December 5 in Kansas City.
In defeating defending NCAA champion Messiah (22-1-1), Tufts eliminated a Falcons program which is the standard in Division III. Messiah had won eight of the last 10 NCAA Div. III titles and 10 overall along with playing in 14 "Final Fours." Today's loss was Messiah's first since September 24, 2013, ending a 39-game unbeaten stretch (38-0-1).
The Jumbos will have to wait a day to learn their NCAA semi-final opponent. Christopher Newport University will play either Ohio Wesleyan University in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Monday at 1 pm. The winner will advance to the "Final Four" to play Tufts at the Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City on Friday, December 5 at 2:30 pm.
Oneonta State, whicn defeated Brandeis 3-0 in the NCAA Quarterfinals today, will play Wheaton (IL), a 2-1 winner over Trinity (TX) in the Quarterfinals, in the other "Final Four" match in Kansas City at noon on December 5. The NCAA Championship game is slated for Saturday, December 6 at 2:30 pm.
The Jumbo program, unranked for most of the 2014 season, was playing in its second NCAA Quarterfinal today. They joined the 1994 team in reaching the "Elite 8." Today's win not only put Tufts in its first-ever "Final Four," it established a program record for victories in a season. Tufts will enter the NCAA semi-finals with a 14-2-4 mark, surpassing 1994's 13 wins.
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| The Jumbos rush the field to celebrate the victory |
Tufts would start the game with the ball and it would be a huge factor in the game. Messiah was whistled for a foul in their own territory giving the Jumbos a free kick. Junior Rui Pinheiro's ball into the box was headed away by a Messiah defender, but went right to Tufts junior Jason Kayne outside the box. He turned and a drilled a shot into the top right corner of the goal just 53 seconds into the match and Tufts led 1-0.
"It gives you a relief and belief in the game," Tufts Coach Josh Shapiro said of the early goal. "I can't say that it's necessarily the best thing for you always because it wakes them up and gets them fired up. It would have been nice to play a ho-hum game and then score in the 80th minute and only have to defend for 10. But I think the confidence of knowing that you can get at them and you can cause some problems was great for us."
Messiah would control possession for most of the first half, but up 1-0 the Jumbos were able to sit a bit defensively and frustrate the skilled Falcon side. Tufts thwarted a pair of back-to-back corners by Messiah in the 14th minute, as well as a pair of free kicks from the side of the box during the half.
"You can't help but become a little bit more defensive in that moment," Shapiro said. "That's not what we set up to do, but we knew we'd be defending a lot. We had to. I think our team was incredibly well organized and committed and bought into what we told them. We were going to be compact, we were going to give up spaces deeper in their midfield and in and around our strikers and sometimes they would have the ball at lot, but we were going to make it very hard to penetrate. I thought we were pretty successful at that. Everyone who came on contributed well and the shape held up really quite well. I think we believed all along that if we got a goal we could see it out and I think the guys showed that with the result."
In addition to their goal, Tufts would have the other best scoring chance in the half. Kayne again put a header towards the goal which Falcon senior goalkeeper Brandon West leaped to his left to save in the 22nd minute. That would be the only save of the half. Tufts finished with a 5-3 advantage in shots, but Messiah had five corners to one by the Jumbos.
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| Tufts' Zach Halliday and Messiah's Brian Ramirez challenge for the ball during the NCAA Quarterfinals |
Tufts started the second half with more offensive pressure. West charged out to save an attempt by Tufts senior Gus Santos, who had broke in from the right side. Three minutes later he saved Kayne's shot from the middle.
"We got a little bit too defensive in the first half," Shapiro said. "We started to fold in on ourselves so we tried to get the message across that we can play, there's room to play, trust yourselves to start connecting some passes. If we are a little more aggressive at stepping into the midfield, if one guy goes, believe in him and step with him. The midfielders upped the tempo and upped the pressure and that allowed us to get a little bit of a foothold. The game was played in the middle of the field a bit more and that gave us room to start connecting some passes and going forward. If the other team is trying to score goals, they have to start committing more players forward and taking risks and that's where we can be quite dangerous."
Sandwiched between West's saves at the other end was a header by Messiah's Mike Kovach that just missed wide left in the Falcons' best opportunity of the game to that point. After a yellow card was given to the Jumbos right outside their box, Messiah's free kick by Brian Ramirez whistled wide left in the 64th minute.
That would be the start of some serious Messiah pressure in the final 25 minutes. Jumbos Zach Halliday and Connor Schaible both had to make saves on Falcon shots within a 30-second span as Messiah earned a succession of three corners. Equally dramatically, two Messiah shots off a corner in the 78th minute were blocked and another by Colby Thomas was tipped by Jumbo sophomore goalkeeper Scott Greenwood and hit the crossbar.
"They started to look really dangerous on set pieces," Shapiro said. "People talk about them being just a skillful team and they are, but they also have four or five guys who are 6-3 and are very good in the air. They were getting delivery and attacking our box well. We got a little bit of whether it's luck or what, but that's what it takes to win a game like that. The guys were going to do everything in their power to not allow a goal to go in. I'm very happy that they were rewarded for their belief."
Santos had a good chance to give the Jumbos some breathing room in the 85th minute, but West punched his shot away. West would make another save on Kayne less than a minute later and finished the half with four stops.
Tufts weathered a last-minute corner by Messiah and then rushed the field to celebrate moving on to their first-ever "Final Four."
Shots finished at 12 apiece, with nine for Messiah and seven for Tufts in the second half. West made five saves in the game while Greenwood had two in addition to making a few strong plays on balls into the box. The shutout was the 12th of the season for Tufts and was just the second time the Falcons were blanked this fall. Messiah had a 10-5 advantage in corners.
The Jumbo program is making its fourth NCAA appearance overall and second under current head coach Josh Shapiro. With today's win, Tufts is 6-3 in NCAA Tournament games.
Tufts went undefeated through the NESCAC season at 7-0-3 to earn the #1 seed in the conference championship for the first time. However, the Jumbos lost 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament to Connecticut College at home on November 1.
The team was uncertain about whether they would receive an NCAA berth following the NESCAC quarterfinal loss and results in other conferences that did not help them. However, they earned an at large berth into the NCAA field, won last weekend's (Nov. 15-16) Regional at Wheaton (MA) with victories over Dickinson (2-1) and the host Lyons (2-0), and are now headed to the "Final Four" after winning in the third round over host Muhlenberg yesterday 2-0 and knocking off Messiah this afternoon.
"I'm very excited for all our guys, especially the seniors who have helped build the program back to where we think we're pretty formidable," said Shapiro, who took over as Tufts coach in 2010. "We're going to take a lot of confidence from this win. We've earned the right to be (at the Final Four). We've gone on the road for four games in a row and got results against some very, very good teams and we're getting great collective performances from our guys. Our team has every right to feel as good as anyone about our chances going into the "Final Four.""
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