BABSON PARK, Mass. – The fourth-seeded Wheaton College (Mass.) men's lacrosse team was defeated by host top-seeded No. 10/13 Babson College, 24-7, this evening in the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Championship Tournament Semifinals at MacDowell Field in Babson Park, Mass.
The Lyons finish their season with a 9-8 record, while the Beavers, who are ranked 10th in the most recent United States Interscholastic Lacrosse Association Poll and 13th in the latest USA Lacrosse survey, have won 13 of their last 14 games and improve to 14-3 on the season.
Babson advances to the NEWMAC Championship Game and will host number two seed Springfield College on May 4 at 5:00 p.m.
The Beavers owned a 63-30 shot advantage and doubled Wheaton in ground balls by a margin of 54-27. The home team also won 25 of 34 face-offs and Babson won the turnover battle with 17 to the Lyons' tally of 23.
The Beavers owned a 16-6 cushion at the intermission, before the defense locked up Wheaton in the second half, allowing just one goal, while the offense added eight scores.
Junior midfielder Charlie Racine (Oradell, N.J.) netted four goals and added six ground balls to lead the Lyons, while sophomore attackman Emmett Edwards (Sunderland, Vt.) netted a pair of goals. Junior attackman Charlie Goodrich (Fairfield, Conn.) registered two points with a goal and an assist to go with a pair of ground balls. Sophomore defender Pason Fielding (Carlisle, Mass.) paced the defense with four ground balls and a caused turnover. Junior starting goalie Connor Almstrom (Cumberland, R.I.) stopped eight of 24 shots in the first half, while classmate John Drew (North Andover, Mass.) denied eight of 16 shots in the second stanza.
Graduate student attackman Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.) led all scorers with eight points, including seven goals in addition to a ground ball for Babson. First year attacker Luke Wang (Simsbury, Conn.) contributed with four goals and an assist and added four ground balls. Graduate student face-off specialist James Turco (Woodbury, N.Y.) dominated the faceoff, winning 14 of 18 draws and picked up 10 ground balls. Graduate student defender Chip Quinn (Catonsville, Md.) led the defense with three caused turnovers to go with four ground balls. Senior starting goalie Bryan Hanley (Plainview, N.Y.) turned away five of 12 shots in the first 51:34 of play, before yielding to graduate student Randy Castle (Boxford, Mass.), who made a pair of saves in the final 8:26 of action.
First year attacker Rowan Mondello (Wakefield, Mass.) opened the scoring for the Beavers with the first goal of the game at the 10:40 mark of the first quarter. Goodrich matched the score to pull Wheaton even at 1-1 with 8:49 left in the period. Rainville and Wang scored back-to-back markers in a span of 33 seconds to reclaim the lead for Babson at 3-1 with 6:15 to play in the quarter. Edwards took a feed from junior midfielder Jack Board (Westborough, Mass.) and potted his 34th goal of the season for the Lyons to cut the deficit to one with 3:49 showing on the first quarter clock.
The Beavers quickly increased their advantage to five goals with four straight markers in a stretch of 97 seconds to close out the quarter with a 7-2 lead. Senior Ford Carney (Garden City, N.Y.) netted the home team's seventh goal with just 11 ticks left on the clock.
Wheaton responded right away, taking advantage of a Babson penalty to open the second quarter and cut the deficit to 7-4. Edwards and Racine were both the beneficiaries of assists from junior midfielder Mike McLaughlin (Stoughton, Mass.). Edwards found the back of the net just 28 seconds into the quarter, before Racine scored just 63 seconds later with 13:29 remaining in the second period.
The Beavers came back with three straight markers, including a goal from Connor Karsh at the 8:08 mark to give Babson a 10-4 advantage. Racine bookended another Karsh goal with two of his own to reduce the deficit to 11-6 for the Lyons with 3:25 to go in the opening half. It was as close as Wheaton would get before the Beavers pulled away.
The Beavers penchant for scoring in bunches in a short amount of time emerged again in the closing minutes of the second quarter. The home team tallied five goals in a span of 2:26, including a Wang strike with 29 seconds left in the quarter to increase Babson's cushion to 16-6 at the intermission.
The Beavers scored the first four goals of the third quarter to give them nine straight scores and a 20-6 lead with 1:17 remaining in the period. Rainville scored three times in the quarter to give him a team-high 68 markers for the season. Racine prevented the Lyons from being shut out in the quarter with Wheaton's final marker of the contest, coming with just four seconds left in the quarter on a feed from Goodrich.
Babson scored all four goals of the fourth quarter to close out the contest.
