Football Overcomes Early Deficit to Defeat Tufts

JOE LADD ’19
SPORTS EDITOR
This past Saturday, the Bantams faced the unbeaten Tufts University Jumbos in front of a large homecoming crowd at the Jessee/Miller field. After giving up two touchdowns in the games first ten minutes, the Bantams came back with a whopping 30 unanswered points. The Bantams got on the board in the second quarter as a result of a three-yard sweep by rookie WR Devante Reid (White Plains, NY) with 11:20 on the clock, which tied the score at 14 a piece. Tufts and Trinity exchanged punts and the Bantam defense turned Tufts over on downs near midfield, giving Trinity great field position in the final two minutes of the second quarter. Junior quarterback Jordan Vazzano (Trumbull, CT) threw a 37-yard pass to sophomore WR Jonathan Girard (Poughkeepsie, NY) on the 3rd-and-11 to push the ball deep into the Tufts territory. Senior Max Chipouras (Longmeadow, MA) finished the drive with an 11-yard run to give the Bantams a 20-14 lead. However, the Jumbos managed to block the extra point and keep the Tufts deficit at six entering halftime. Trinity capitalized on the halftime rest and scored early in the second half. Girard made a 59-yard reception to put the Bantams on the Tufts 7 yard lin, in which Vazzano made a 6 yard run into the enzone. The Jumbos answered back, running it 59-yards to the Bantam nine-yard line. Howver the Bantams were not gonna let the Jumbos go easy as Trinity sophomore DL James Christiano (Middlebury, CT) recovered a Tufts fumble and ran 52 yards to the Tufts 39-yard line. Soon after, senior Eric Sachse (Jefferson, MA) made a 25-yard field goal to make the score 30-14 at the end of the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, Tufts sophomore Matt Alswanger (Stamford, Conn.) booted a 23-yard field goal and the teams traded touchdowns on a one-yard Vazzano run and a two-yard toss from the Tufts QB, respectively. Trinity converted a two-point conversion after their touchdown on a pass from Jordan Vazzano to Max Chipouras to ensure a 14-point lead for the Bantams. Vazzano completed 10/19 passes including four to Girard for a game-high 127 yards. The Bantams improved their record to 4-1and landed themselves in a three-way tie for second place in the NESCAC standings. The Amherst Mammoths stand alone at 5-0 in first place.