Men's Lacrosse at Clark
Saturday, April 21—1 p.m.
Granger Field—Worcester, Mass.
THE SERIES
Babson and Clark will meet for the 22nd time on Saturday afternoon in a series that dates back to 1994. The Beavers are 20-1 all-time against the Cougars but have needed late comebacks to win in each of their last two trips to Worcester.
LAST MEETING
Junior Brandon King scored five goals and Bobby Philbin won 13-of-21 face-offs as Clark defeated the Beavers, 14-9, on April 22, 2017, in Babson Park. Senior Will Mandracchia scored three times and Drew Riopelle-Tyrell made 10 saves for the Cougars, who closed the game with a 6-1 run. Senior Axel Brown had three goals for the Beavers.
LAST BABSON WIN
Scott Doten '16 scored three of his career-high six goals in the fourth quarter as the Beavers rallied from a three-goal deficit to defeat Clark, 14-13, on April 23, 2016, in Worcester. Connor Flaherty '17 and senior Austin Fabel each added two goals for Babson, which got six saves from fellow senior Jordan Shapiro. Isaac Bass and Rob Holden combined to score seven times for the Cougars, who got 13 stops from Riopelle-Tyrell.
SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Clark (8-4, 3-1 NEWMAC) has won four in a row after breezing past Mass. Maritime, 16-10, on Wednesday night. King, Madracchia and Jacob Brandes all scored three times and Philbin won 11-of-16 face-offs as the Cougars built a seven-goal lead after three quarters. King (37-6-43), sophomore Chris Rasco (28-6-34) and Mandracchia (20-12-32) all rank among the league's top 10 in scoring, while Philbin has won 68.2 percent (116-of-170) of his face-offs and scooped up a team-high 64 ground balls. Senior Will Roberts has a team-high 15 caused turnovers and junior Nathan Maselek has posted an 8.71 goals against average and a .616 save percentage in 12 starts this season.
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
Babson (7-5, 4-0 NEWMAC) has won four in a row after routing Wheaton, 16-6, on Wednesday night. Junior Brendan Duffy finished with two goals and three assists and Fabel scored three times for the Beavers, who won a season-best 18-of-25 face-offs in the victory. Junior Samuel Mishkind (34-3-37) is fourth in goals and tied for fifth in the league in assists, and first-year Mason O'Hanlon (19-9-28) and just Niall Dillon (13-10-23) have combined to dish out 19 assists. First-year Jack Tague leads the Green and White in ground balls (36) and caused turnovers (15), senior Connor Maloney has won 20-of-33 face-offs and sophomore goalkeeper Christopher Aranalde has posted an 11.29 goals against average and a .475 save percentage in 11 starts.
READY FOR THE STRETCH RUN
Entering Saturday's contest the Beavers are the only team still unbeaten in conference play, while Clark, Coast Guard, Springfield and MIT enter the day with just one loss apiece. The Green and White will host the Engineers on Wednesday and close the regular season with the up-and-coming Bears next Saturday. The top four teams will qualify for the NEWMAC Tournament in the first week of May.
MAN-UP ADVANTAGE
Despite being held without an extra-man goal in Wednesday's win, the Green and White leads the conference with 20 man-up goals. Mishkind, who ranks second in the league, and Dillon have combined 13 EMO tallies.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Beavers have outscored their first four conference opponents 27-11 in the second half.
