Blair nets fourth game-winning goal this season, 16th of his career

POSTGAME COMMENTS WITH LUKE FINKELSTEIN & NOAH KOSSOFF

NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College men's soccer team, ranked No. 12 overall in the D3soccer.com national poll and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) national rankings, defeated Babson College, 3-1, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) action on Saturday afternoon on Keefe Field.

Wheaton received goals from junior Noah Kossoff (New York, N.Y./Birch Wathen Lenox School), senior Travis Blair (Hastings, N.Y./Hastings) and sophomore Kevin Davis (Beacon, N.Y./Beacon) this afternoon. Blair netted his fourth game-winning goal this season and 16th in his career while chipping in with three shots. Senior captain Luke Finkelstein (Peabody, Mass./Peabody), Matheus Goncalves (Framingham, Mass./Worcester Academy) and Amara Sesay (Bronx, N.Y./Martin Luther King) each assisted on the Blue and White's three goals while Scott Enman (Brooklyn, N.Y./Packer Collegiate Institute) and Liam Daniels (New York, N.Y./Northfield Mount Hermon) each tallied four shots in the victory.

Babson was paced by Andrew Gonzalez (Durham, Conn./Xavier), who netted the lone goal for the Beavers. Moses Lim (Torrance, Calif./Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies) assisted on the tally, his second of the year. Justin Kaplan (Medway, Mass./Medway) and Justin Laurenzo (Park Ridge, N.J./Don Bosco Preparatory) each posted three shots in the loss.

Both teams put immediate pressure on the opposing goalkeepers as Matt Dickey (Newton, Mass./Northfield Mount Hermon) and Stephen Donato (Morganville, N.J./CBA) each made a pair of saves in the opening fifteen minutes of play. Babson netted its only goal in 20th minute when Lim gathered a loose ball in front of the net after a corner kick from junior Tyler Carlos (Prospect, Conn./Taft) and passed it to Gonzalez for his third goal of the season.

Just 3:42 into the second half, Davis headed his first goal of the season into the net off of a Finkelstein corner kick to knot the score at 1-1. In the 58th minute, the Lyons used three consecutive corner kicks to try and grab the lead, but were turned away by the Beavers defense inside the box. At 68:00, Sesay won the ball off a Babson turnover and found a wide-open Blair, who then blasted his seventh goal of the season into the upper right corner of the net to give the Lyons a 2-1 lead. 

Kossoff netted the all-important insurance goal for the Lyons in the 75th minute on a feed by Goncalves for his fourth marker of the year. Kossoff received Goncalves' pass nearly 30-yards away from the box, made a quick turn towards goal and fired a rocket into the lower left corner of the net to push the score to 3-1.

Dickey and Donato each recorded six saves in the match. The Lyons held an 11-6 advantage in corners and a 23-14 differential in shots.

Wheaton (10-1-1, 3-0-0 NEWMAC) travels to Trinity College on Tuesday with kickoff slated for 4 p.m, while Babson (7-4-0, 1-2-0 NEWMAC) hosts Bridgewater State University tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.​ With the win, Wheaton improves to 18-13-0 against Babson in the all-time series, which dates back to 1990.

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