Men's Soccer 11/2/2022 12:00:00 AM

No. 13/15 Men's Soccer Hosts Wheaton in Thursday's NEWMAC Semifinals

No. 13/15 Men's Soccer vs. Wheaton
NEWMAC Tournament Semifinal
Thursday, November 3 | 2 p.m.
Hartwell-Rogers Field | Babson Park, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 23-20-0 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1990.
• Babson has won seven in a row and nine of the last 10 matches between the teams going back to the 2015 NEWMAC Tournament, which includes five straight victories at home.
• The programs have never played to a draw after 110 minutes despite going to overtime eight times since 1996.

POSTSEASON HISTORY
• The storied rivals are set to meet for the seventh time in the last nine postseasons (excluding 2020) and 15th time overall in the conference playoffs on Thursday.
• The Beavers are 8-6-0 against Wheaton in the NEWMAC Tournament action, which includes victories in four of their last five playoff matchups.
• The sides have also met once in the NCAA Tournament, a 3-2 Lyons' victory back in 2004.
• Since 1998, Babson and Wheaton have combined for 17 conference championships in 23 seasons.

LAST MEETING
• Graduate student Ben Williams and senior Samuel Smith both scored twice and junior Louis Gazo added a goal and an assist to help Babson defeat Wheaton, 5-0, on September 17 in Norton, Mass.
• Williams scored twice in the first 20 minutes of the match and graduate student Ryan Goss and junior Liam Rhatigan both recorded a pair of assists as the Beavers built a 3-0 halftime lead.
• Senior goalkeeper Cam Millington finished with four saves for the Lyons.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 13/15 Babson (13-3-2) enters the postseason riding a five-game winning streak following its 3-0 victory over Springfield last Saturday.
• Williams scored a pair of first-half goals for the second game in a row and sophomore Lyndon Way added his second goal of the season in the 73rd minute for the Beavers, who claimed their ninth NEWMAC regular season title since 2008.
• Williams (11-3-25) is second in the conference in both goals and points, Gazo (5-7-17) is second on the team with two game-winning markers, and senior Mitchell Collins (3-7-13) is tied for second in the NEWMAC in assists behind only Goss (1-8-10).
• Sophomore goalkeeper Walker White has started all 18 matches and owns a 0.88 goals against average and a .770 save percentage to go along with four solo and five combined shutouts.

SCOUTING THE LYONS
• Fifth-seeded Wheaton (9-4-6) returned to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2019 with a 2-1 win over fourth-seeded WPI on Tuesday.
• Junior Luke Strange opened the scoring in the 56th minute and then set up senior Jack Brusso's go-ahead marker with a free kick in the 70th minute for the Lyons, who are unbeaten in five straight matches and have lost just once over their last 11 outings.
• Sophomore Alasdair Ferrier (13-2-28) leads the NEWMAC in goals and points and has scored at least once in six of his last eight contests, Strange (4-5-13) is tied for the team lead in assists and Brusso (4-1-9) has a goal in back-to-back games.
• Millington is 6-3-5 in 14 starts this fall with a 1.22 goals against average and a .726 save percentage to go along with three shutouts.

BEAVERS IN THE POSTSEASON
• Babson, which has won nine conference tournament championships since 2002, is 13-4-2 all-time in the NEWMAC semifinal round and has advanced to the championship game 14 times in 19 tries since 1999.
• The Beavers defeated MIT, 4-1, in the 2021 tournament final and have claimed four titles (2014, 2015, 2019, 2021) over the last seven seasons.

REGIONAL IMPACT
• The third and final NCAA regional rankings were released on Wednesday and Babson is first in Region II for the second week in a row.
• The Beavers are 3-1-2 against regionally-ranked foes with wins over WPI, Wheaton and Coast Guard to go along with draws with a pair of teams from Region I, Tufts and Williams.
• Wheaton, which is ranked fourth behind Endicott and WPI, picked up its first regionally-ranked win of the year on Tuesday against the Engineers.

WILLIAMS CLAIMS FINAL NEWMAC OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONOR
• Thanks to a four-goal week, Williams was selected as the league's offensive player of the week for the second time this season on Monday.
• He scored twice inside of nine minutes in an October 25 victory over Bridgewater State and recorded his third brace of the year in Saturday's 3-0 win over Springfield.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Goss, Collins and fellow seniors Eamon Keenan, Liam Hanlon, Ross Shellow, Jack Dugan, RJ Parrilla, Ryan Grund and Rodrigo Madiedo have all played major roles in Babson's back-to-back NEWMAC titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2019 and 2021.
• Collins, Hanlon and Shellow have started all nine of the Beavers' postseason matches going back to 2018, while Keenan and Parrilla have been part of the starting XI in all seven conference and NCAA Tournament games since 2019.
• Keenan has scored four goals in seven postseason contests, while Dugan, Hanlon and Grund, who tallied the OT game winner against Wheaton in the 2019 NEWMAC semifinals, all have one postseason marker on their ledger.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Collins enters the postseason with 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.
• The 11 goals scored by Williams this season are the most by a Babson player since 2014 when Justin Laurenzo '15 tallied 15 times in 2014.
• Goss' eight assists are the most since 2014 when Tyler Carlos '16 helped set up nine goals.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 7-1-1 at Hartwell-Rogers Field this season and have won their last five matches against NEWMAC foes at home going back to October of last year.
• Babson is 13-0 when scoring the first goal of the match and 9-0 when leading at halftime this fall.
• The Green and White is 12-0-2 when limiting its opponents to one goal or fewer this season.
• The Beavers have won their last 10 games against conference opponents and are 26-2-6 going back to 2018 versus league foes.
• Babson is 6-2 in the month of November since 2019.

UP NEXT
• The winner of Thursday's semifinal will take on either second-seeded Emerson or third-seeded MIT in Saturday's NEWMAC final.

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