NORTON, Mass. - The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's lacrosse team fell to the number eight ranked Babson College Beavers in their first conference game within the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference 19-8 on Nordin Field Saturday afternoon. 

The loss puts the Lyons at 6-2 overall and 0-1 within the NEWMAC, while Babson stays undefeated to improve to 6-0 overall and 1-0 within the NEWMAC.

Senior Charlie Goodrich (Fairfield, Conn.) led the way for the Lyons with four points on three goals and an assist. Senior Emmett Edwards (Sunderland, Vt.) and junior Evan Paturzo (Bellingham, Mass.) both finished with three points; the former scored three goals and the latter took home two goals and an assist. Junior goalkeeper Evan Borchert (Littleton, Colo.) made 10 saves throughout the contest.

Junior Camden Matthews (Westfield, Mass.) led the game with five points on three goals and two assists, while sophomore Chase Wightman (Little Compton, R.I.) scored two times and assisted two goals for a four point afternoon. Senior Jackson Simon (Bellevue, Wash.) finished with exactly three goals for a hat-trick while senior Braden Reilly (Reading, Mass.) matched Simon's point total with a goal and two assists. Babson goaltender Andrew Almquist made 14 minutes while playing the entire 60 minute contest.

Babson opened up their first conference game of the season by scoring the first goal of the game four minutes after the first whistle. Goodrich responded perfectly as he found some space to shoot from a distance just over a minute later. Goodrich's shot found its way through the lane and past Almquist to tie the game at 1-1 in the first. The Beavers regained the lead just under two minutes later with junior Seamus Rooney's (Bay Shore, N.Y.) second goal of the quarter. The Beavers scored two more before the quarter ended, but Edwards and Paturzo linked together to score again for Wheaton to make it 4-2 at the break. 

Babson scored again four minutes into the second quarter, but Paturzo was able to respond after the Wheaton defense forced a turnover. His goal with less-than five minutes to play before halftime made it 5-3, but the Beavers found the back of the net two more times in the last 71 seconds of play to make it 7-3.

The Beavers were still in control of the game to start the third quarter. They slipped four goals past Borchert in the first 10 minutes to take an 11-3 lead. Goodrich was able to tally one for Wheaton moments after junior Chris Bodnaruk (Andover, Mass.) won the face-off. Despite Goodrich's goal, the visitors were able to score four more before the fourth quarter after Simon scored with 1.1 seconds on the clock.

Trailing 15-4 to start the fourth, the Lyons needed a spark. Paturzo provided exactly that as he charged downfield to score off of Bodnaruk's face-off win. Edwards was able to convert the Lyons' man-up opportunity minutes later to make it 15-6. Babson wiped away the effort with two goals in 17 seconds. Just over a minute later, Edwards scored another goal in an effort to keep chipping away at the Babson lead. The Beavers would remove the possibility of making that effort almost immediately as Simon scored and his teammate first year Cash McCoy followed up with a goal of his own. Goodrich scored again for Wheaton with three minutes and thirty seconds to go, but the Babson defense switched to maximum protection to deny the Lyons bids for another score. The Lyons fell to the number eight Beavers 19-8 in their first NEWMAC contest.

Wheaton will take on Eastern Connecticut State on Tuesday at Nordin Field for a 7:00 pm face-off at home. Babson will take on number 16 Middlebury tomorrow at 1:00 pm in Babson Park.