NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College men's lacrosse team was defeated by visiting Babson College, 16-5, this afternoon in New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference action on Nordin Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The Lyons fall to 9-5 overall and 1-5 in league play, while the Beavers improve to 7-7 and 3-2. 

Wheaton celebrated its senios prior to the game, honoring Alex Berg (Southport, Conn.), Alec Morin (Belmont, Mass.), Lou Mainella (Falmouth, Maine), Emmitt Zinn (Windham, Maine), Mike Goodwin (Acton, Mass.), Ben Stomberg (Glastonbury, Conn.), Mike Conti (Old Bethpage, N.Y.), Brennan McIntyre (Bourne, Mass.) and Matt Barrett (Guilford, Conn.).

Babson won 18 of 22 faceoffs to give them possession for the majority of the match, while owning a commanding 56-30 shot advantage. The Beavers also owned a 35-18 ground ball margin.

Berg paced the Wheaton offense with two goals and an assist in addition to a ground ball. First year midfielder Charlie Racine (Oradell, N.J.) netted a goal, picked up a ground ball and caused a pair of turnovers, while junior attacker Shane Ross (Hanson, Mass.) netted a goal and added two ground balls. First year goalie John Drew (North Andover, Mass.) turned away eight of 19 shots in the first half, before yielding to junior Cory Bannon (Hopkinton, Mass.), who stopped seven of 12 shots.

Sophomore midfielder Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) scored four goals and caused a turnover on the day for Babson, while senior attackman Peter Chisholm (Westford, Mass.) tallied four points, including three goals and added a pair of ground balls. Sophomore midfielder Connor Karsh (Glenview, Ill.) contributed to the offense with three goals. Grey Sunderland (Bellevue, Wash.) won 16 of 19 faceoffs and picked up 10 ground balls. Senior goalie Mac Mowat (Bellevue, Wash.) picked up the win after stopping eight of 10 shots in 48:05 of play. 

The teams traded goals in the opening minutes of the first quarter with Karsh and Ross trading goals for a 1-1 game. The Beavers then turned in a scoring blitz that the Lyons could not recover from or stop. Babson scored the final three goals of the first quarter and all seven goals of the second quarter to take an 11-1 advantage at halftime. Bower scored three times during the stretch, while Karsh found the back of the net two more times. Chisholm and junior attacker Nick Mitchell (Sudbury, Mass.) each scored twice as well.

Chisholm tallied the first goal of the second half with 8:01 left in the third quarter, before Wheaton first year attackman Ethan Powers (Braintree, Mass.) connected with classmate Mike McLaughlin (Stoughton, Mass.) for an advantage score at the 4:53 mark to cut the deficit to 12-2. Sophomore attacker Alex Fairman (Fayetteville, Ark.) answered for the visitors just over 90 seconds later with the last goal of the quarter and a 13-2 Beavers lead.

Babson graduate student Lee Sipes (Windham, N.H.) and Berg traded goals to open the fourth, before Bower and first year attacker Colt Bordonaro (Portland, Ore.) each scored to give the Beavers a their largest lead at 16-3 with 6:58 remaining in the game. The Lyons scored the final two markers of the day with goals from Racine and Berg in the final five-plus minutes.

Wheaton will play again on Wednesday, April 27 when it travels to Henniker, N.H. to take on New England College at 7:00 p.m., while Babson travels to Cambridge, Mass. to play Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday, April 30 at 1:00 p.m. in NEWMAC action.