BOX SCORE

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The Springfield College men's lacrosse team captured its fourth-consecutive Pilgrim Lacrosse League Championship on Saturday afternoon after defeating Babson College, 19-8, on Stagg Field to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship.

Winners of their last five games, Springfield improves to 11-5 on the season.

Harry Bernstein tallied a game-high five points off four goals and an assist, while Jarrid Johnson added a hat trick and a helper. Mike Delia dished out four assists, and Shane Ferguson tallied three goals. In his first collegiate start, Branden Fernandez went 17-of-28 in face-offs, picking up a game-high eight groundballs. Between the pipes, Connor Nash recorded a career-high 14 saves.

For the Beavers, Jamie Schmidt posted a team-best three points on two goals and an assist, while both Armand Wilson and Paul Grip scored twice. Alex Patinkin contributed a goal and an assist, while Ryan Dawidjan had a monster game defensively with seven caused turnovers and five ground balls while winning 5-of-10 draws. Jay Whalen was credited with 17 saves in goal.

Springfield owned a 49-28 advantage in shots and was victorious on 17-of-30 face-offs. Babson committed 34 turnovers in the game and went just 20-for-32 on clears.

The Beavers registered the opening goal of the game as Wilson turned and fired from five yards out into the back of the cage off a feed from Cam Caruso just under two minutes into the contest.

Springfield would eventually find its offensive rhythm and string together five straight goals over the next eight-plus minutes to take a 5-1 lead. Parker Geane and Runyon each scored twice in the spurt, with Geane's rip from 10 yards at the 4:47 mark found the top left corner of the net.

Patinkin scored Babson's first goal in roughly 12 minutes when he blistered a shot into the ride side of the cage with 50 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Springfield's lead ballooned to seven at 9-2 as it opened the second quarter with four consecutive marks. A pair of Bersntein strikes sandwiched a Geane tally, before Ferguson converted a Delia feed for an extra-man goal with 10:45 left in the half.

Babson answered with its only goal of the second quarter after Tom Mallon registered a man-up tally with 6:33 on the clock.

Springfield closed out the first 30 minutes of play with two goals inside the final three minutes, including an unassisted goal by Johnson and a goal by Bernstein in transition with nine ticks left.

The Beavers scored the opening goal of the second half 1:14 in to get within seven as Grip buried a shot from 10 yards out. Springfield answered with four of the final five goals of the quarter to take a 15-5 lead heading into the fourth. Ferguson scored two unassisted goals in the twice in the quarter, including a rocket from 12 yards that found the top shelf.

A Schmidt man-up strike at the 12:10 mark started off the fourth quarter scoring before unassisted goals by Ryan Murphy and Eric Balslov 51 seconds apart gave the Pride a 17-6 lead. The teams would trade a pair of goals each in the final 5:35 as the Pride completed its fourth-consecutive title run.

The loss marked the end to another successfull campaign for Babson, which went 10-8, earned its 11th straight Pilgrim League Tournament berth, and advanced to the championship game for the first time since 2001.

NOTE: Taken from a Springfield College press release.