BOX SCORE
BABSON PARK, Mass – The Babson College men's
lacrosse team built a 4-0 lead in the first quarter and still led
by three at halftime, but visiting Springfield College rallied with
three goals in the third and five more in the fourth to claim a
thrilling 10-7 comeback win in the final game of the Pilgrim League
regular season at MacDowell Field on Saturday evening.
With the win, Springfield (10-5 overall, 7-0 Pilgrim League)
clinches the top seed in next week's conference tournament,
and will host fourth-seeded MIT in the semifinal round on
Wednesday, May 5 at a time to be determined. Meanwhile, Babson
(10-6, 5-2) will be seeded third in the Pilgrim League Tourney and
will head to Wheaton for a semifinal matchup with the second-seeded
Lyons at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Springfield received two goals apiece from senior Joe Heney
(Plainview, N.Y.), sophomore Mike Delia (Wading River, N.Y.), and
sophomore Jarrid Johnson (Orlando, Fla.), while senior Kyle Gable
(Somers, Conn.) and sophomore Harry Bernstein Westfield, N.J.) each
added one goal and one assist. Junior Mark Eaton (Westford, Mass.)
added one goal and a game-high 11 groundballs for the Pride, while
senior goalie Matt Cipolla (Harriston, N.Y.) came off the bench to
make eight saves in the final three quarters of play.
Junior Armand Wilson (Fairfield, Conn.) paced
Babson with two goals, while junior Andrew Packer (Hudson,
Ohio) and senior captain Max Artz (Gates Mills,
Ohio) each contributed one goal and one assist. The
Beavers received a magnificent performance from their defensive
unit, led by junior Christian Ebert (Boxford,
Mass.), who forced three turnovers and picked up a
team-high seven groundballs. First-year defenseman Blake
Dudek (Lancaster, Pa.) chipped in with two groundballs,
Artz had four GBs, and junior Ryan Kucinski (Cohassett,
Mass.) had one groundball while also scoring one of the
Beavers' seven goals. Senior captain Mike Saucier
(Nashua, N.H.) also played well in his final regular
season home game, finishing with nine saves in net.
Babson was nearly flawless in the opening quarter, ripping off
four unanswered goals to take a 4-0 lead after one. Wilson started
the barrage with a beautiful behind-the-back goal just 1:36 into
the contest, and Kucinski followed with a coast-to-coast effort
with 11:21 left in the period. First-year Jamie Schmidt
(Shelburne, Vt.) then converted a feed from Artz to make
it 3-0 with 10:05 left, and Wilson capped off the dominating
quarter with a spectacular goal when he made a leaping catch of a
bullet pass from Packer just outside the crease and redirected it
past Springfield starting goalie Marc Martinez (Babylon, N.Y.) with
4:38 left.
Springfield finally got on the board early in the second
quarter, as Heney scored off a pass from junior Kyle Louer (Islip,
N.Y.) at 13:12. Babson then re-established its four-goal lead when
sophomore Brad Simpson (Neenah, Wisc.) took a pass
from first-year Alex Patinkin (Providence, R.I.)
and ripped a shot past Cipolla to make it 5-1 at 9:43.
Facing its second four-goal deficit of the game, Springfield
took over from that point on. The Pride got one goal back when
Johnson scored with 4:05 left in the second quarter, and then
scored three unanswered goals in the third and four straight to
start the fourth to take a 9-5 lead. Seven different players scored
the final seven goals for the visitors, including Johnson and
Heney, who both netted their second of the contest.
Artz finally ended the run when he scored to make it 9-6 with
8:22 left in the fourth, but Delia converted his second of the
contest 22 seconds later to make it 10-6 in favor of Springfield.
Packer would score his first of the game to cut the Beavers'
deficit to 10-7 with 6:07 left to play, but the Pride defense would
limit Babson to just one shot on net the rest of the way as
Springfield escaped with the 10-7 comeback victory.
Prior to the contest, a brief ceremony was held in honor of
Babson's five seniors. During their careers, Artz, Saucier,
Shane Farrell (West Warwick, R.I.), Jon
Standen (South Hadley, Mass.), and Travis Clarke
(Waltham, Mass.) have helped lead Babson to a total of 28
victories, including 10 wins this spring – the
program's most since 2003.
