Lyons season comes to a close at 10-7

BABSON PARK, Mass. – Fourth-seeded Wheaton College fell to first-seeded Babson College, 11-5, in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Lacrosse Tournament semifinal round on Wednesday night at MacDowell Field.

Wheaton senior Matthew Hillman (Brookline, Mass./Brookline) paced the offense with a pair of goals on seven shots. Hillman also added a team-high five ground balls and one caused turnover to his stat line in the final game of his career for the Lyons.

Sophomore Will Morrison (Osterville, Mass./Salisbury School) contributed one goal and one assist, while first-year Griffin Phaneuf (Manchester, N.H./The Derryfield School) and sophomore Ryan Gjerset (Austin, Texas/St. Michael's Catholic Academy) both potted solo markers to round out the scoring.

Babson junior John Harrison (Pembroke, Mass./Catholic Memorial) led all scorers with three goals on four shots (all on goal). Classmate Spencer Low (Natick, Mass./The Rivers School) registered two strikes and one assist for three points, while first-year Austin Fabel (East Rockaway, N.Y./Lynbrook) found the back of the net once and dished out three helpers to highlight the Beavers' attack.

Lyons' junior goalkeeper Ryan Clair (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School) stopped a game-high 14 shots, including 11 in the first half. Clair has now compiled ten or more saves in the last five contests (71 total) and turned away ten or more shots in 12 games total this season.

First-year Jordan Shapiro (Pleasantville, N.Y./Fordham Prep) notched 11 saves to push his record to 11-6 overall.

Wheaton held a 47-37 advantage in shots and went 22-for-27 in transition. Babson posted a 13-for-18 showing at the face-off X, a 47-39 differential in ground balls and converted 21 out of its 23 clear attempts.

The Beavers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period as junior Scott Doten (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township), Harrison, Low and junior Brendan Coan (Towson, Md./Loyola Blakefield) all buried goals over a 10:01 span (14:12-4:11).

Phaneuf and Gjerset opened the second with back-to-back strikes at the 10:34 and 8:14 marks, respectively, but Babson responded with three unanswered goals to close out the half with a 7-2 advantage.

Wheaton went on to cut the margin to four goals (8-4) in the third as Morrison potted an unassisted tally at 7:23 and Hillman sniped home a man-up goal with a slick move in front of the net at 4:31. Morrison set up Hillman's strike with a feed from behind the cage.

Fabel stymied the Lyons' momentum 15-seconds later with his ninth goal of the season off a set-up from senior Kyle Barsalou (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow). Low closed out the period with his second and final goal of the contest as time expired in the quarter to bump the gap on the scoreboard to 10-4.

Wheaton outshot the Beavers 18-7 in the third quarter, but Shapiro stopped four of the six shots on goal to help the hosts maintain their cushion.

Hillman sliced the deficit back to five with 12:31 left, but the Lyons were unable to draw closer as they committed eight turnovers and put just three of their 11 shots on goal over the final 15 minutes. Harrison completed his hat-trick on a transition goal with just over three minutes remaining for the final margin (11-5).

Wheaton's season comes to a close at 10-7 overall. Babson (11-6) returns to action on Saturday when it hosts second-seeded Springfield in the NEWMAC championship game at 1 p.m.

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