Earlier in the week, however, the Jeffs kicked up a storm of their own, thrashing visiting Rivier College 6-1. Amherst, coming off of a pair of offensively-dominating wins, wasted no time in getting on the board. Just 1:36 into the game, senior Joaquin Walker crossed the ball into the middle to rookie Taylor Downs for a header.
Midway through the first half, junior Joe Gannon took a pass from senior co-captain Matt Langione and made a gorgeous move before netting his third goal of the season. The Jeffs kept up their unrelenting pressure, needing just four more minutes to add another goal to the scoreboard. This time, Downs found Walker to put Amherst up 3-0.
Just before the half, Rivier's Dan O'Leary capitalized on a penalty shot to cut the Amherst lead to 3-1.
Amherst erased any ideas of a comeback two minutes into the second half when Gannon found sophomore Mike Wohl to push the lead back up to three. The score was Wohl's fourth in just three games for the Jeffs. Joe Martinez '08 helped put the nail in Rivier's coffin, assisting on Amherst's last two goals to seal the 6-1 victory.
Amherst, which outshot Rivier 34-4, hopes to continue its offensive domination on Saturday against visiting NESCAC opponent Tufts University in what will be Amherst's second conference matchup.
"The rainout was devastating, but we shouldn't have any problem carrying our early momentum into Saturday's match against Tufts," said Downs.