On Saturday, March 29, Amherst journeyed to Waterville, Maine, to take on the Colby White Mules. In the first half, the Jeffs rode the Mules to the tune of a 9-3 halftime advantage. Amherst did it in typical fashion, too, capitalizing on goals from tri-captain attackman Chris Condlin '03 and tri-captain midfielder Matt Margolis '03, as well as assists from midfielder Andrew Syfu '05.
But the Jeffs faltered in the second half, allowing the Mules to climb back into the game. Colby struck four times in the third quarter to cut the Amherst lead to 10-7. They outscored the Jeffs again in the fourth quarter, but their comeback would fall just short. Amherst held on for the eventual 11-9 victory and moved to 3-0 in NESCAC play for the year.
Syfu led Amherst scorers with four points on four assists. Both Condlin and Margolis netted hat tricks in the contest. Attackman Alex Casertano '05 added two goals and an assist to the potent Amherst attack.
The Jeffs paid an April Fool's Day visit to Western New England College to battle the Golden Bears. Just as they had in the Colby game, the Jeffs jumped out to an early lead, but then faltered before ultimately securing victory.
Amherst tallied five times in the first quarter to grab the early 5-1 lead. But WNEC would win both the second and third quarters to cut the Amherst lead to two, 7-5, before the closing frame. Amherst snapped out of its mid-game funk, however, scoring three times in the fourth quarter to grab the 10-6 win over their regional rivals.
Once again, Condlin led scorers with five points on the strength of four goals and an assist. It was the fourth time this young season that the senior attacker led the team in goal scoring. Overall, the tri-captain leads the Jeffs with 18 goals and 19 points. The second leading scorer for the Jeffs is Casertano, who has nine goals and nine assists over the six-game span.
Condlin and Casertano also enjoy the two highest shooting percentages on the squad. Combined, the two have netted their 27 goals on just 38 shots
Against WNEC, it was the rookie Kevin Boova who notched four assists, upping his season total to 10, which ties him for the team lead with Syfu. Casertano added another three points of his own with a goal and two assists.
On Saturday, April 5, the Jeffs were scheduled to play the rival Panthers of Middlebury College at home, but the game was rescheduled to Sunday, April 6, at UMass, due to the weather. But the weather didn't cooperate on Sunday either, and the game has been postponed indefinitely.
"Our success on the offensive end thus far has a lot to do with the simple fact that we don't have one guy doing it all," said Boova. "Each of us has a good sense of what our roles are. It is to our advantage that we are able to play so many guys and not skip a beat."
Now Amherst, 5-1 overall, will set its sights on a cavalcade of would-be victors coming to Hitchcock Field in the coming weeks. This week, however, the Jeffs take on only one opponent, the Wesleyan University Cardinals, who will visit Amherst on Saturday at 2 p.m.
"Compared to last season, I feel our team has more confidence in our ability to compete with any team that we face," said Syfu. "Most importantly I think the players and the coaching staff understand each other much better than last year. But we still have a lot to prove to ourselves and to other teams."
"We have a very big couple weeks in front of us with a lot of key games," said Boova. "Even though Middlebury is the one we really want, nobody in our conference can be overlooked."