SOMERVILLE – The Tufts University football team amassed 559 yards of total offense with 361 through the air and 198 on the ground in a 31-13 victory over Bowdoin College in the Jumbos' Homecoming Game under the lights in front of 4,500 fans at Ellis Oval Saturday night.
Quarterback
Michael Berluti completed 21 of 31 passes for 336 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for a touchdown. Receivers
Phil Lutz (9 catches for 117 yards and a TD),
Cade Moore (3-101) and
Jaden Richardson (4-96-1), and back
Tyler Johnson with 99 yards rushing and a touchdown on 16 carries also led the Jumbo attack. Tufts improved to 3-1 overall.
Bowdoin (1-3) scored touchdowns late in each half as the Jumbos did a good job holding NESCAC's #1 back entering the week Andre Eden to 44 yards on 21 carries. Tufts defensively had interceptions by
Louis Timmins and
Kristian Rosario, while
EJ Comerford had one of three Jumbo sacks and also forced and recovered a fumble while making five tackles.
Tufts had taken the opening possession 14 plays down to the Polar Bear 10-yard line, but Bowdoin's Axel Romell intercepted a pass to thwart the scoring opportunity. Later in the period, Bowdoin was in Tufts territory when quarterback Andrew Boel was sacked by Comerford and fumbled with Jumbo
Javier Rios making the recovery. Neither team would score in the first.
Big pass plays set up Tufts' first two scores in the second quarter. Richardson's 38-yard reception down to the Bowdoin two-yard line was followed by Berluti's two-yard touchdown run at 14:17. After a Polar Bear punt, a 54-yard Berluti to Moore connection on the ride sideline led to a one-yard scoring run by Johnson at 9:21 and it was 14-0 Jumbos.
The hosts would make it three possessions in a row that finished in the end zone as a 25-yard rush by Johnson and a 25-yard reception by Lutz set up a 15-yard Lutz receiving touchdown making it 21-0 with 4:31 on the second-quarter clock.
A Tufts penalty on a Bowdoin punt extended the Polar Bears' next drive. After back-to-back 20-yard and 38-yard receptions by Colton Fahey from Boel, Eden rushed for a two-yard score at 2:38. The extra point was missed, then the Polar Bears would block a Jumbo field goal attempt late in the first half and the teams went to their locker rooms with the hosts leading 21-6.
The Polar Bears were close to potentially pulling within a score on their first possession of the second half. However, Timmins intercepted Boel at the one-yard line. The Jumbos would then take control of the game with an outstanding eight-play, 99-yard drive to go ahead 28-6. They did not have a third-down play during the possession and it ended with a 33-yard touchdown from Berluti to Richardson at 7:28 of the third.
Comerford recovered a Bowdoin fumble on the next drive and Tufts turned that into a 25-yard field goal by freshman
Vaughn Seelicke late in the third.
Back-to-back interceptions by Rosario for Tufts and Gordon Gozdeck for Bowdoin brought the game to the fourth quarter. Two long drives by both squads did not result in points, but Bowdoin finished with a one-yard touchdown run from Eli D'Herete with under a minute left. D'Herete had a 42-yard run earlier in the possession and replacement QB Robbie Long passed 34 yards to Slade Postemski down to the Jumbo one. That got Bowdoin over 300 yards for the game as they finished at 305.
Boel was 11 for 28 passing for 188 yards, with five balls for 150 yards going to Fahey. D'Herete gained 55 yards on seven carries after he came in for Eden. Ty Jones-Garlan's 10 tackles for Bowdoin, including 2.5 for losses, was the game-high.
The teams combined for 50 first downs in the game, with 30 by Tufts.
