MEDFORD, Mass. -- Charlie Tagliaferri's late goal in the fourth quarter lifted the 4th-ranked Tufts University men's lacrosse team past 15th-ranked Amherst College, 14-13, on the Jumbos' Bello Field Saturday.
The Mammoths slipped to 9-5 overall and 5-4 in the conference while Tufts improved to 12-2 overall and 8-1 in NESCAC play. The Mammoths host Trinity Wednesday night at 6 p.m. on Gooding Field in their regular-season finale.
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:
* Amherst found itself down 3-0 early on but stormed back with four straight goals to take the lead in what would turn out to be a back-and-forth affair until the end.
* Senior
Jake Bennett got he Mammoths on the scoreboard with 7:31 left in the first quarter to make it 3-1. Just 3:16 later
Thompson Lau received a pass from
Matthew Sheinberg and slipped it past the Jumbo goalkeeper to make it a one-goal game. Amherst tied it with 36 seconds left in the stanza when
Bob Gross took a pass from Bennett and fired it home. After one quarter it was 3-3.
* Amherst took its first lead 64 seconds into the second quarter when Alex Giacobe converted a pass from
Alex Vlacich into his 31st goal of the season.
* Trailing 5-4, the Mammoths would rip off five consecutive tallies to build a 9-5 lead before halftime. Sheinberg scored with 9:30 remaining in the half to give the Mammoths a 6-5 lead. After a four-minute scoreless truce by both teams, the Mammoths made it 7-5 with 5:51 left on
Brendan Reilly's man-up goal. After another score from Bennett, Reilly scored a man-down goal that gave Amherst a four-goal lead with 1:54 left. A late Tufts goal would make it 9-6 at the break.
* The Jumbos scored four of the first five goals in the third quarter to tie the game 10-all, but a Gross goal with 15 seconds left in the quarter regained the lead for Amherst at 11-10.
* Tufts scored the first three goals of the final 15 minutes to take a 13-11 lead, but the Mammoths refused to fade as Reilly scored from Bennett with 7:39 remaining to make it 13-12 and tying the game with 5:06 remaining when Gross beat the keeper off a Giacobbe set-up.
* Tagliaferri scored for Tufts with 2:48 to go to make it 14-13. Coming off the ensuing face-off that Tufts won,
Lawson Laverty gave the Mammoths a chance when he caused a Tufts turnover. But the Mammoths turned it back over. With just over 80 seconds to go, Amherst got it back and Bennett had two shots to tie, one shot went wide and one, with 27 seconds left, hit the post.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Amherst had a 48-47 edge in shots. Tufts had 16 turnovers to the Mammoths' 14. Tufts held a 35-30 edge in groundballs. Tufts won 17 of 31 face-offs.
* Lau led the team with 5 groundballs. Laverty and
Nicholas Kopp had four each.
Ryan Rahbany led the team with 2 caused turnovers.
* Brooks Caitlin made 13 saves for the Mammoths. Connor Garzone made 16 for Tufts.
