Beavers Tie 2014 School Record and Earn Second Seed in NEWMAC Tournament

BABSON PARK, Mass.—Babson College open an eight-goal lead midway through the second quarter and closed the game with nine unanswered tallies en route to a 21-6 victory over the visiting Coast Guard Academy in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at MacDowell Field.

Babson (9-7, 6-1 NEMAC) tied a program record with its eighth consecutive victory, and will be seeded second in next week's conference tournament. Coast Guard wraps up the regular season at 10-6 overall and 3-4 in league play, and will learn later on Saturday if they win a tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Senior John Harrison (Pembroke, Mass.) led all players with four goals and an assist for five points, while classmate Spencer Low (Natick, Mass.) and first-year Niall Dillon (Duxbury, Mass.) both scored four times for the Beavers. Sophomore Axel Brown (Little Compton, R.I.) contributed three goals and one assist, first-year Samuel Mishkind (Chappaqua, N.Y.) added two goals and two assists, and senior Scott Doten (Western Springs, Ill.) scored once and led all players with three assists.

Sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Shapiro (Pleasantville, N.Y.) made nine first-half saves, while junior Zach Cattaruzza (Guilford, Conn.) and sophomore Jack O'Donoghue (Scituate, Mass.) combined for nine ground balls and six caused turnovers for the Green and White.

First-year Jack Pope (San Diego, Calif.) scored three times and chipped in with one assist for the Bears, who were held to a season-low goals.

Low scored three times over the game's first eight minutes and Brown added two early goals give Babson a 6-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Brown notched a man-up marker at the 7:19 of the second quarter to make it 9-1, and Dillon scored with 34 seconds left in the frame to give the Beavers a 10-2 halftime advantage.

Mishkind scored back-to-back goals just 68 seconds apart to make it 12-4 with 9:00 left in the third quarter, but Coast Guard responded with tallies from Pope and first-year Anthony Wyler (Fulton, Md.) to cut its deficit to 12-6 just over two minutes later. The Bears would get no closer though, as the hosts finished the contest with a 9-0 run.

Harrison scored with four seconds left in the third quarter and followed it with consecutive markers to open the fourth quarter, extending the lead to 18-6 with 8:17 left. He set up junior Connor Flaherty's (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) tally at the 5:26 mark and then scored again just over a minute later.

First-year Trey Johnson (Millersville, Md.) finished with 11 saves in just short of 56 minutes for Coast Guard, which committed 28 turnovers and was just 12-of-17 on clears. The Bears did win 19-of-30 face-offs, including 6-of-7 in the opening quarter.

The Beavers held a 51-30 edge in shots and finished with a 45-39 advantage in ground balls.

Babson will host third-seeded MIT in a NEWMAC Tournament semifinal on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 2-0 all-time against Coast Guard.
• Saturday's contest marked the final regular-season home game for Doten, Harrison, Low and fellow seniors Brendan Coan (Towson, Md.) and Connor Toomey (Vero Beach, Fla.). Babson's five seniors have posted 41 victories and led the program to three straight conference tournament championship games, while also capturing the Beavers' first regular-season league title since 1990 last spring.
• Babson's eight-game winning streak matches the 2014 squad, who recorded eight straight victories from March 21-April 23.
• The Beavers are now 23-3 in regular-season NEWMAC play going back to 2013.