With lackluster offense on both sides, the key word in men’s football team’s game against Tufts was defense. Unfortunately for the Cardinal faithful at Andrus Field on Saturday, Tufts’ defense was just a bit stronger as the men’s football opened its NESCAC schedule with a 16-6 loss to the Jumbos.

“From the defensive prospective I thought we played pretty well for about 90 percent of the game but the other 10 percent really hurt us,” said Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Coach John Raba. “A couple of mental errors and critical mistakes allowed Tufts to capitalize and that was the difference in the game.”

In a game that featured seven turnovers, and a meager 333 total offensive yards between the two teams, the Jumbos dominated the second half en route to the win.

After several defensive controlled drives for each team that resulted in no points, quarterback Zach Librizzi ’08 led the Cardinals down a 53-yard drive in five plays, ending with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Librizzi to Blake Curry ’07. AJ Taucher ’08 missed the PAT, leaving Wesleyan up 6-0. The scoring drive was fueled by a 24-yard pass from Librizzi to Matt Barnum ’06 setting up a first and goal for Wesleyan at the Jumbo ten yard line. After an interception by Joe Pepe ’07 was wiped out by a defensive pass interference call, the first quarter ended with Wesleyan in the lead.

Neither team was able to get anything going on offense in the second quarter. The longest drive of the quarter was 26 yards by Tufts, on their first drive of the quarter.

Wesleyan seemed to have a spark after they recovered a fumble at the Tufts 37-yard line following a botched fair catch by the Jumbo return man.

But the Cardinal offense was unable to move the ball against their opponent’s stout defense, and they were forced to punt the ball. The lack of offense continued for the rest of the quarter, and the Cardinals went into the locker room at halftime still maintaining the slim 6-0 advantage.

After the half, the game quickly shifted to Tufts’ favor. The Jumbos picked off a Librizzi pass early in the third quarter and followed with a six play scoring drive, capped by a 5-yard touchdown plunge by Tuft’s QB, Casey D’Annolfo. The Jumbos nailed the PAT and took a 7-6 lead.

Trying to gain the momentum back in their favor, Wesleyan went to the bench, calling in Zach Canter ’07 to play quarterback. On his first drive, a roughing the kicker penalty on Tufts gave the Wesleyan offense new life and a new set of downs. But, after moving the ball all the way to the Tufts 37-yard line from a 15-yard completion from Canter to Barnum, it was more of the same. The offense once again stalled and after failing on fourth down, the ball was given back to the Jumbos.

Later in the third quarter, the Jumbos took advantage of a Cardinal turnover and nabbed a 14-6 lead when Barnum fumbled a punt return. Tufts started with the ball on their own 49 and sped into the end zone in less than two minutes for their second touchdown of the game. D’Annolfo found Steve Menty for a 12-yard score.

After the Cardinal defense forced a punt on the first drive of the fourth quarter, the offense started with the ball on their own 11-yard line. When things did not seem like they could go worse for the offense, Librizzi, now relieving his own relief at QB, was sacked in his own end zone for a safety. The play gave the Jumbos a 16-6 lead, one they would hold for the duration of the game.

Splitting time at QB, Zibrizzi finished with 90 yards passing on 8 completions, with a touchdown and a pair of interceptions. Canter added 22 yards of his own through air on 2 of 10 passing. Garth Mitchell ’08 led the Cardinal’s anemic running game with 26 yards on ten attempts.

The Cardinals will try and find more offensive success next Saturday when they travel to Hamilton College for their second game of the season. Wesleyan has knocked off the Continentals eight straight, including last year’s 41-35 win. All-time, Wesleyan is 20-13-1 versus Hamilton.