Box Score
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Defending NCAA Champion Tufts University, winners of 13 games in a row entering today's game, allowed Williams College to score the first goal of the game, before netting the next 6 goals to take a 6-2 lead at the end of the first half.
Will Stewart opened the scoring in the contest for Williams with an unassisted tally at 12:55 of the first quarter. Tufts answered Stewart's goal at 10:24 by Kevin McCormick who also recorded an unassisted goal.
Tufts never trailed after the goal by D.J. Hessler with 49 seconds left in the first period gave the Jumbos a 2-1 lead.
The win extends Tufts win streak to 14. The Jumbos are now 5-0 on the year and 3-0 in NESCAC. With the loss the Ephs fall to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in NESCAC.
Tufts quickly expanded their 2-1 lead after the first quarter when Sean Kirwan scored just 36 seconds into the second quarter off a feed from Hessler. Kirwin was back again to score at 3:45 to make it 4-1.
With just 45 seconds left in the second quarter the Ephs stopped the Jumbos' skein of 6 unanswered goals with an unassisted tally by Evan Dedominicis.
The closest Williams would get after halftime came at 14:45 of the fourth quarter when Will Stewart scored for the second time in the contest off a pass from Michael Acierno, making the score Tufts 7 and Williams 4.
Unassisted scores by Ryan Malloy and D.J. Hessler boosted the Jumbos lead back to 5, 9-4, and put the game out of reach of the Ephs.
On the day Tufts' goalie Steven Foglietta turned aside 17 of the 23 Williams shots to notch the win. The Ephs Evan Cohen made 13 saves, while allowing 12 goals.
Ryan Malloy led the Tufts offensively with three goals and three assists and he received strong support from D.J. Hessler who also netted three goals and assisted on two more.
"They're an excellent team," commented Eph head coach George McCormack. "We're just frustrated because we're just getting back some of the four starters we lost to injury. We weren't able to test their goalie today with quality shots, and we gave them too many man-up opportunities, but we did do a much better job of holding onto the ball."
"We played tough," continued McCormack. "We did not play afraid. I feel good about where we are and I'm excited to see where we will be when we are at full strength."
Offensively Williams was led by Will Stewart and Evan Dedominicis, each scoring two goals, while Michael Acierno added three assists.
Tufts was plus 10 in shots on the day, 43-33 and the ground balls in the game were even at 38.
Next up for the Ephs is home game on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. versus Endicott.
