MEDFORD – Senior Sean Trupo of the Tufts University men's lacrosse team will be featured on ESPN's SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt tonight.
As part of an ongoing #SeniorNight series, Van Pelt recognizes college and high school student-athletes and teams around the country whose seasons were canceled early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On the night Tufts announced it was canceling its spring sports season – March 10 – the men's lacrosse team was hosting Ithaca College at Bello Field. Trupo was playing in just his fourth career game, having missed almost all of his first three years due to ACL injuries.
Rumors had spread that it would be the last game of the season. Then the University sent out the official announcement at 7:40 pm that evening. For Trupo and his senior teammates, it suddenly was the last game of their careers.
With the clock winding down towards six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Trupo won a ground ball on the rebound of a shot by teammate Cole Salton that had hit the crossbar. Gaining an advantage against an Ithaca defender with a spin move, Trupo drove to the net and scored with a bounce-shot.
It was his first collegiate goal in his final collegiate game.
What made the moment even more special was the excitement shared by his teammates and coaches both on the field and on the sideline. That is at the heart of the EPSN #SeniorNight series – playing for the love of the game and your teammates.
JumbosLaxTV, founded by Tufts men's lacrosse alumnus Drew Innis, and which has been documenting the Jumbo program since 2007, caught both the goal and the reaction perfectly. The piece was submitted for #SeniorNight consideration on Twitter and was selected to air by Van Pelt and the show's producers.
According to ESPN's programming schedule for today, SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt will air at 10:45 pm this evening.
Here's Trupo's goal ...
