The 2022 Tufts University men’s football season ended on Sunday, November 13, with a 2–0 loss to regional hosts SUNY Oneonta in the second round of the NCAA Division III men’s football tournament. The day before, the Jumbo won their first round battle against UMass Boston, winning 1-0 thanks to a superb free-kick goal scored by first-year midfielder Daniel Yanez.
Jumbo got off to a promising start against the Oneonta Red Dragons on Sunday, nearly controlling the game for the first 20 minutes. However, the hosts struck first against the tide of play when forward Lucas Fetch headed home across from midfielder Ethan Brunel. The goal was Fetch’s 13th of the season and represented an advantage for Oneonta in having a reliable goalscoring threat in the front three. This is what the Tufts have been missing all season.
The Red Dragons doubled their lead in the 74th minute with a sharp comeback that Jumbo couldn’t stop. Defender John Bernardi, after his chance to kick free from Jumbo, red regained the ball in his Dragons own half and created space for the counterattack with a beautiful flick that evaded tackles. By the time Bernardi sprinted the length of the field, he was able to put a pass from Fetch into the back of the net to make the score 2–0.
The story of Jumbo’s offensive predicament from this season continued throughout the day.
Such a loss underscored Jumbo’s inexperience and the need for a reliable source of goals in 2023, especially set pieces.
“We struggled to score goals. [which] Kyle Desotel, Jumbo’s second-year head coach, said in an interview with All Things Division III Soccer with SimpleCoach, “There was a time this year when I actually thought I was playing better football than at any point in 2021. Just in 2021, Calvin Arrow coming to the head with a corner kick or Travis Van Brewer. score with a direct kick, or Biagio Paoletta hit a header with a corner kick, which was not the case this year.It usually comes in the same way with juniors and seniors.
“Throughout the NCAA Tournament, you can see how important set pieces are,” added Dezotell. “It’s the part of our game that no one wants to talk about, or the ugly side of our game, but it’s really important. I said this in 2021. Conn. I thought Iruka had won the national championship. And you’re watching it now. Williams is in the Final Four because of how good their set pieces are.
All three of Jumbo’s goals in the final five games of the season came from set-pieces. His three goals in five games is a pretty abysmal rate, especially by Jumbo’s high standards, but some of Jumbo’s biggest victories in the 2022 season were set pieces where his goals mattered. It supports Desotel’s claim that there is. In fact, the last of those three set-piece goals was a Yanez free kick, which proved to be the only goal in Jumbo’s 1–0 NCAA Tournament victory over UMass Boston.
In the 75th minute, Yanez, who has quickly established himself as one of the Jumbo’s best long-range goal-scoring threats this season, hits a right-footed shot from the left edge of the penalty area to open the UMass Boston four-man wall. crooked around. and inside the far post of the goal.
“I remember the goalkeeper building the wall. There were four or five guys on the wall and his positioning was weird, so it looked a little weird,” Yanez said. “He was in the middle of the goal and it looked like he couldn’t see the ball very well. So I decided to hit it against the far post and see what happened…and he could see it.” I just saw the enter.
Moments like these have allowed Dezotell to be proud of Jumbo’s accomplishments this season and be optimistic about the program’s future.
“As a coach, I think I actually did incredibly well this year to reach the second round of the NCAA Tournament. I felt that I was really, really confident.Compete for everything.”
