SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.—Sophomore Axel Brown (Little Compton, R.I.) scored a career-high four goals, but visiting Babson College gave up six unanswered goals to end the first half and was defeated 16-10 by Skidmore College in its season opener on Saturday afternoon at Wachenheim Field.

Junior Connor Flaherty (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) finished with two goals and one assist, while sophomore Austin Fabel (East Rockaway, N.Y.) and first-year Niall Dillon (Duxbury, Mass.) both added a goal and an assist for the Beavers. Sophomores Jack O'Donoghue (Scituate, Mass.) and Erik Patriquin (Sherborn, Mass.) each caused three turnovers and collected seven and six ground balls, respectively. Classmate Connor Maloney (Hopkinton, Mass.) won 7-of-14 face-offs in the loss.

Senior Kevin Mulvey (Westfield, N.J.) led all players with six goals, while Cody Legaza (Ponta Vedre, Fla.) contributed three goals and three assists for the Thoroughbreds, who got 18 saves from sophomore goalkeeper Chris Baughan (Foxboro, Mass.).

Trailing 3-1 just over four minutes into the game, Babson tied the game with two straight tallies from Brown and took a 5-4 lead after back-to-back goals by Fabel and Flaherty. Skidmore scored twice in the final two minutes of the first quarter and added four second-quarter goals, including two from Mulvey, to build a 10-5 halftime lead.

The Beavers got back within four on Brown's third goal of the game at 10:13 of the third quarter, but Mulvey responded nine seconds later with the first of three straight scores as the Thoroughbreds extended their lead to 13-6 with 8:48 to go in the frame. Brown and Dillon notched back-to-back goals to cut the Babson deficit to 13-8 just over three minutes later, but Skidmore again answered with a three-goal run to take its biggest lead of the afternoon at 16-9 midway through the fourth quarter.

Sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Shapiro (Pleasantville, N.Y.) made 11 saves for the Green and White.

The Beavers finished with a 57-43 edge in shots and were  19-off-22 on clears, but were shutout on four man-up opportunities.

Skidmore won 16-of-29 face-offs, went 3-for-6 on man-up chances and ended with a 33-29 advantage in ground balls.

Both teams return to action next Saturday as Babson hosts nationally-ranked Union at 1 p.m., while Skidmore takes on MIT at 2 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 4-10 going back to 2003 against Skidmore and have dropped two straight in the series.
• The loss was just the third for Babson on the road over its last 13 games going back to 2014.
• Prior to Saturday's loss, the Beavers had won 10 of their last 11 games when scoring 10 goals or more.