Men's Soccer 10/21/2022 12:00:00 AM

Game Preview: No. 18/22 Men's Soccer at MIT

No. 18/22 Men's Soccer at MIT
Saturday, October 22 | 4:00 p.m.
Roberts Field | Cambridge, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 40-10-6 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1976.
• A 1-0 MIT regular season victory in Babson Park last season gave the Engineers the NEWMAC regular season title but the Beavers earned revenge with a 4-1 triumph in the conference championship game in Cambridge.
• Ten of the last 12 matches between the sides going back to 2012 have been decided by a single goal or ended in a draw.

LAST MEETING
• Four different players had a goal and second-seeded Babson scored three times in less than 10 minutes late in the second half to defeat top-seeded MIT, 4-1, in the NEWMAC Tournament championship match on November 6, 2021, at Steinbrenner Stadium.
• Seniors Eamon Keenan, Giancarlo Arguello '22, Ben Cawood '22 and Jack Dugan each had a goal for the Beavers. Robert Dunne '22 chipped in with an assist and classmate Itai Rubin '22 matched his career high with eight saves in the win.
• Senior Will Seiple scored in the 86th minute for the Engineers, who got four saves from classmate Paarth Desai.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 18 United Soccer Coaches/No. 22 D3soccer.com Babson (10-3-2, 5-0-0 NEWMAC) is coming off a 1-0 non-conference victory at Eastern Connecticut on Tuesday. The Beavers are 6-1-1 in their last eight games with the only blemish in that span a loss at defending national champion Connecticut College on October 12.
• Junior Louis Gazo scored the only goal of the match in the 77th minute against Eastern Conn., with assists from seniors RJ Parrilla and Mitchell Collins. Sophomore goalkeeper Walker White made four saves to record his fourth clean sheet of the season for the Beavers.
• Graduate student Ben Williams (7-2-16) is second in the conference in both goals and points, Gazo (5-5-15) has scored a goal in three of his last four games, and Collins (3-7-13) and graduate student Ryan Goss (1-6-8) are 1-2 in the NEWMAC in assists. Junior Shamar Rainford (4-1-9) has scored all four of his goals off the Beaver bench.
• White has started all 15 matches and owns a 1.00 goals against average and a .750 save percentage to go along with three shutouts.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
• MIT (8-6-0, 4-1-0 NEWMAC) is looking for its third win in a row after Wednesday's 4-2 victory over Worcester State.
• The Engineers erupted for four second-half goals in the win, including two from senior Hendrik Mayer. Seiple and junior Garrett Robinson also scored for the winners.
• Robinson (5-1-11) and Rami Bikdash (5-1-11) are tied for third in the NEWMAC in goal scoring, and senior Richter Brzeski (2-3-7) leads the team in assists. MIT has been outscored on the season, 25-24.
• The Engineers have used three different starting keepers this season, with Desai (1.89 GAA, .641 sv. pct., 25 svs.) making eight starts, Lukas Hanson-Puffer (1.72 GAA, .650 sv. pct., 13 svs.) getting the nod four times, and Zachary Zhang (1.92 GAA, .556 sv. pct., 5 svs.) drawing the start twice.

REGULAR SEASON RACE
• Babson is in the driver's seat in the NEWMAC regular season race with a 5-0 conference record and can clinch the title with a win Saturday. The Beavers would also clinch at least a share of the regular season title and no worse than the second seed in the conference tournament with a draw against MIT.
• The Engineers sit a game behind in second place at 4-1 but would be favorites to claim their second straight regular season crown and top seed in the NEWMAC Tournament with a win Saturday.

BABSON VS. THE NEWMAC
• The Beavers have won their last eight games against conference opponents dating back to the regular season loss to MIT last year and are 24-2-6 against NEWMAC foes since the beginning of the 2018 campaign.
• The only blemishes in that span were a 1-0 setback to Springfield in the 2018 NEWMAC championship game and the 1-0 loss to MIT on October 23, 2021.

WEEKLY HONORS
• Collins became the sixth different Babson player to earn a top weekly honor from the NEWMAC when he was named Offensive Athlete of the Week on Monday afternoon.
• Collins joined junior Samuel Kalishman (Offense, 9/6), senior Samuel Smith (Offense, 9/19), Williams (Offense, 10/3), White (Defense, 10/3) and Hanlon (Defense, 10/11) as NEWMAC weekly honor recipients.

BEAVER BITES
• Collins has 49 career points and is one shy of becoming the 26th player in program history to produce 50 points. His 19 career assists are also tied for 15th all-time in program history.
• With its 10th win of the year on Tuesday, Babson has now posted double-digit victories in four consecutive seasons and 17 of the last 18 years.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers have scored first in all 10 of their wins and are 21-0-1 since last year when scoring the first goal of the game.
• The Green and White are 9-0-2 this season when holding the opponent to one goal or less.

UP NEXT
• The Beavers wrap up the regular season next week with a pair of home games at Hartwell-Rogers Field, hosting Bridgewater State in a non-conference affair on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and Springfield in a NEWMAC encounter next Saturday at 1 p.m.

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