Men's Soccer 10/7/2022 12:00:00 AM

Game Preview: No. 15 Men's Soccer vs. No. 25 Coast Guard

No. 15 Men's Soccer vs. No. 25 Coast Guard
Saturday, October 8 | 1 p.m.
Hartwell-Rogers Field | Babson Park, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 41-9-7 all-time against Coast Guard in a series that dates back to 1968.
• The Beavers have won three straight matches against the Bears going back to 2018.
• The Green and White was unbeaten in 12 home matches between 1995-2012 but Coast Guard has been victorious in two of its last three trips to Babson Park winning in 2014 and 2016.

LAST MEETING
• Sophomore Lyndon Way his first career goal off a corner kick in the 40th minute as Babson defeated Coast Guard, 1-0, on October 9, 2021, in New London, Conn.
• Itai Rubin '22 finished with three saves for the Beavers, while sophomore Josh Hudson turned away five shots for the Bears.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 15 Babson (7-2-2, 3-0-0 NEWMAC) extended its unbeaten run to four matches with a 7-0 rout of Suffolk on Tuesday afternoon.
• Graduate student Ben Williams and senior Rodrigo Madiedo both had a goal and an assist, while sophomores Matthew Thompson and Matias Gutierrez notched their first career markers for the Beavers, who raced out to a 4-0 halftime lead.
• Williams (7-2-16) has three goals over his last two games and leads the conference in scoring, graduate student Ryan Goss (1-6-8) leads the NEWMAC in assists, and the trio of senior Mitchell Collins (1-4-6) and juniors Louis Gazo (2-4-8) and Liam Rhatigan (1-4-6) have combined for 12 assists on the year.
• Sophomore goalkeeper Walker White has started all 11 matches and owns a 1.01 goals against average and a .714 save percentage to go along with two shutouts.

SCOUTING THE BEARS
• No. 25 Coast Guard (7-1-2, 1-1-1 NEWMAC) bounced back from its first loss of the season last Saturday by knocking off No. 11/17 Wesleyan, 2-0, on Tuesday night.
• Senior George Ackling scored in the 65th minute and junior Andrew Federer tacked on an insurance goal less than five minutes later for the Bears, who recorded their seventh clean sheet of the year.
• Seniors John DiTommaso (5-2-12) and Noah Engstrom (5-0-10) are tied for third in the conference in goals, classmate Casey Savage (2-1-5) has one game-winning goal and first-year Aki Freeman (1-3-5) leads the team in assists.
• Senior John Vaaler and junior Wolfgang Pfleghar have started nine of 10 games in goal for Coast Guard, which has conceded just four times and ranks sixth in Division III with a 0.40 goals against average.

POINTS RACE
• Only Babson and MIT have taken the full nine points from their first three NEWMAC matches and are currently tied atop the standings.
• Coast Guard and Emerson are tied for third place with four points, while Springfield is currently fifth after defeating WPI, 1-0, for its first league win last Saturday.

SUCCESS IN CONFERENCE PLAY
• The Green and White has won its last six matches against NEWMAC foes and has done it in style outscoring the competition 16-2.
• Going back to 2018, Babson is 22-2-6 versus league opponents with the only losses coming against MIT (1-0) last October and Springfield (1-0) in the 2019 NEWMAC Tournament final.

HITTING ALL THE RIGHT NOTES
• The Beavers' 7-0 victory over Suffolk on Tuesday saw 11 different players contribute a point as part of the program's highest scoring output since 2001, when it beat Salve Regina 8-1.
• In addition to the first career markers for Thompson and Gutierrez, Rhatigan and Madiedo both notched their first goals of the season, while senior Ross Shellow scored for the second time in four games.
• Junior Ryan Kim picked up his third assist of the year and first-year Troy Stacey recorded the first two assists of his collegiate career late in the match.

HONORING "WILD" WILL
• Will McHugh, who is better known as Wild Will of Westwood, joined the Babson men's soccer program in 2014 through Team IMPACT and will be honored prior to the start of Saturday's match. Will, who suffers from Lissencephaly, is a fixture on the sidelines during games with his parents Bill and Donna, and has been a part of the program's four NCAA Tournament appearances over the last six years.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 7-0 this season when scoring two or more goals. Conversely, Coast Guard has conceded two goals just three times in 28 games going back to the start of last year.
• Babson is 5-0 this season and has won its last 14 games when leading at halftime going back to October 2019.
• The Green and White is 18-0-1 since the start of last year when scoring the first goal of the contest.
• The Beavers are 18-4-4 in the month of October since 2018.

UP NEXT
• Babson travels to defending Division national champions Connecticut College on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

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