For the last four seasons, Head Coach E.J. Mills and the football team have managed to pull out excruciatingly close victories over the Tufts University Jumbos. For instance, two years ago Tufts led Amherst 10-7 late in the game and was driving deep inside Jeff territory. The Jumbos fumbled on the Jeff goal line, however, and Amherst drove the length of the field to secure a 14-10 win. Last year, Tufts held a two-touchdown advantage over Amherst heading into the fourth quarter but lost the game in overtime. This year though, the Jeffs luck wore out as Tufts bested Amherst 24-17 in overtime. The Jumbos last win over the Jeffs came in 1998.

The overtime loss was even more disheartening for the Jeffs given the number of injuries they were forced to overcome. Nick Kehoe '07 made his first career start at quarterback for the Jeffs in place of Marsh Moseley '05, who injured his shoulder in last week's Homecoming win over Wesleyan University. Moseley reclaimed the signal-calling responsibilities from Kehoe midway through the second half but completed only four of 14 passes for 51 yards and two interceptions. Kehoe was 3-8 for only five yards on the afternoon.

At running back, Amherst entered the game knowing that it would be without the services of explosive backup Ngai Otieno '06, but the Jeffs' top two rushers, quad-captain Fletcher Ladd '04 and Matt Monteith '05, both reaggravated injuries during the Tufts game, limiting their availability. As a result, Offensive Coordinator Don Faulstick was forced to rely on fourth and fifth-string running backs Dom Cama '06 and Will Beeson '07.

Injuries affected Amherst defensively as well. Quad-captain Paul Whiting '04 was forced out due to injury early in the game, which made the Jeff secondary particularly vulnerable to the Jumbos' aerial attack.

But despite all the injuries, Amherst still had plenty of opportunities to win, yet was simply unable to capitalize on them.

Amherst erased its 14-7 halftime deficit early in the fourth quarter on Ladd's second rushing touchdown of the afternoon. The Jeffs began the scoring drive on the Jumbo 43-yard line, following a one-yard punt. The drive was keyed by two clutch Moseley completions.

Moseley found his favorite receiver, Jay Wagstaff '05, for an 11-yard gain on third-and-ten and subsequently completed a 16-yard pass to Jim Devine '04 on fourth-and-ten. The completion to Devine set up Ladd's game-tying five-yard touchdown run.

Amherst actually took the lead late in the game following a missed field goal by Tufts. Starting at their own 20, the Jeffs marched 68 yards down to the Jumbo 12-yard line, setting up a 29-yard field goal by David Bodner '05 with just 2:28 left in regulation. The key play in the drive was a 23-yard reception by tight end Ryan Sykes '05.

Unfortunately for Amherst, Tufts had no difficulty moving the ball on its final possession of regulation. Jumbo quarterback Jason Casey began the drive with three consecutive completions to Matt Cerne, good for 40 total yards. Casey successfully converted on two subsequent third down conversions, and the Jumbos seemed poised to win the game outright as they worked their way down to the Jumbo 3-yard line. But the Amherst defense held firm, forcing Casey to throw three consecutive incompletions and Tufts to settle for a game-tying field goal.

Amherst won the coin toss at the beginning of overtime and elected to play defense first. After stopping Tufts for a negligible gain on first down, the Amherst defense surrendered a back-breaking 20-yard completion which took the Jumbos down to the Jeff 3. On the next play, Tufts rumbled into the end zone to take a seven point lead.

Amherst was given a chance to respond on offense but did little with the opportunity. A botched snap ruined the Jeffs' first offensive play, an incomplete pass foiled the second and a Moseley interception abruptly ended the game on Amherst's third play.

Amherst finished the game with only 145 yards rushing, well below its season average of nearly 258 yards-per-game. Jumbo running back Tim Mack nearly matched Amherst's rushing output single-handedly with 142 yards.

Coach Mills refused to pin the heartbreaking loss on the rash of injuries his team has endured, "I'm not making excuses; Tufts flat out outplayed us," he said.

The Jeffs certainly picked a bad time to get banged up, as undefeated Trinity College comes to Pratt Field this Saturday. Trinity has yet to allow more than seven points in any of its six games so far this season. Moseley is expected to be at full strength for the Trinity game, but like most teams at this point in the season, the Jeffs will still need to work around a handful of injuries.

"Trinity is by far the best team in the league," said Mills. "Physically, they are head and shoulders over most everyone they are playing against."