For the first time in school history, Tufts defeated long-time rival Fitchburg State, ending the Jumbos longtime curse. In senior Justin Picone's opinion, Fitchburg's own athletic director, may have ended his school reign of dominance.

"In every home game, their athletic director, who is sitting in the stands, gets up and sings the national anthem," Picone explained. "It is really bizarre. For some reason he did not sing it this time, there was pandemonium, and the curse was lifted."

For a more tenable reason, look no further than the fact that the Jumbos are finally the better team. Many argued that after coming back from a two-goal deficit to tie the playoff semi-final game 3-3, last year, the Jumbos deserved to win. But as fate is not always kind, and the Falcons ended the sudden death period with a score, ending Tufts' season.

"We came in really hungry. This was a vengeance game for us," senior tri-captain Natan Obed said. "Last year they had a couple of great senior players who graduated. They are still a good team this year, though."

It took only 31 seconds for Tufts to get on the scoreboard, as Picone lit the lamp, on what turned out to be the game-winning goal. Interestingly, when Tufts scores first, they are 10-0 this year.

"If we score early it give us an advantage," Obed said. "Our offense thrives on confidence."

Notorious for their school spirit and ruthless heckling, the Fitchburg State fans are some of the most feared in the league. Shutting them down is usually just as important as shutting down the Falcons offense.

"We took the crowd out pretty early with the two quick goals," Obed said. "Since we shut them down in the defensive zone, the crowd didn't have much to cheer about all night."

When scoring goals did not work, the Falcons tried to score some punches, as the game turned into a melee in the second period.

"After they got down three or four they decided to fight us instead of beat us," Obed said. "We don't need to get involved in that to win. We are not going to instigate fighting majors or misconducts. We try to defend ourselves, but not take stupid penalties."

Not distracted by the penalties and constant fighting, the Jumbos continued to run their offensive and defensive systems, scoring goal after goal.

"We kept taking it to them. Every goal we scored, we pushed ourselves further away from them," Hayes said. They have a good crowd. It's a tough place to play, but we went in scored right away, and that got our confidence up."

In their record-breaking season, the Jumbos have finally hurdled one of their biggest obstacles, and now own bragging rights over Fitchburg State.

"Fitchburg has been one of our toughest rivals since I have been here," Obed said. "It is a great accomplishment to finally beat them in my senior year."