The Amherst men’s lacrosse team had a thrilling weekend, besting NESCAC powerhouse Tufts 21-15 on Saturday, April 15 at Pratt Field.

The game, Amherst’s final home tilt of the season, also served as the Mammoths’ senior day.

Along the way, first-year Colin Minicus garnered NESCAC player of the week honors on Monday after piling up 17 points in Amherst’s win over Tufts and their prior victory on Tuesday, April 11 against Connecticut College.

The Connecticut native finished the week with an impressive 72.2 shots-on-goal percentage, and leads the team with a phenomenal 36 assists.

Following their exciting NESCAC win, the Mammoths handed Tufts their first loss of the season by an exciting score of 21-15. The Saturday afternoon game marked Amherst’s senior night, during which they celebrated eight senior players.

The Mammoths used a powerful run in the fourth quarter to pull ahead and sealed the first Amherst victory in the last four meetings between the two.

Amherst scored first when a shot by Max Keeley ’18 found the back of the net off a pass from Jackson Herrick ’20, followed by a commanding four-goal Tufts run.

Albanese and Inglesby tallied a response, and Amherst finished the first period tied thanks to goals in the last three minutes of the quarter by Herrick and Albanese.

Tufts seemed to pull away in the second period, as the Mammoths entered the locker room at halftime trailing with a score of 12-8. Amherst’s only tallies in the period came from Mahon, Albanese and Schwartz, but the team hung on to stay within two goals as time ran off the clock in the third quarter.

With just six minutes left on the clock in the third quarter, a monstrous six-goal run that went unanswered by the Jumbos would put the Mammoths up 16-14. Albanese, Schwartz and Mahon all contributed to the offensive surge, while first-year Jon Coffey and Wolff would also get on the board in this offensive onslaught.

Entering the final quarter of play up by two goals, another five-goal run in the final 15 minutes of play sealed the victory for Amherst.

Tufts showed a feeble attempt to take momentum back, as the Jumbos scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, before a McAfee goal got the ball rolling and set the table for Albanese, Wolff, Killian and Solberg to secure the victory for Amherst.

The strong offensive play was complemented by the consistent Mammoths defense. Sanford caused four opponent turnovers in the victory over Tufts, while Smith and McAfee each added three caused turnovers.

Senior goalkeeper Cody Tranbarger made 14 saves, including seven in the second quarter, to improve to 9-3 between the posts.

The impressive win against the highly ranked Jumbos highlighted how potent the Amherst offense is this season, and the team hopes to continue the pattern as they face off against NESCAC rival Williams on Saturday, April 22 at 1 p.m.