BABSON PARK, Mass.— The Coast Guard Academy scored five first-quarter goals and withstood a second-half Babson College comeback Saturday afternoon to post a 9-6 victory over the Beavers in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's lacrosse opener for both schools Saturday afternoon at rainy MacDowell Field.

With the win, Coast Guard captured its fourth consecutive victory to improve to 4-2 overall (1-0 NEWMAC), while Babson, which defeated the Bears 15-7 in last season's NEWMAC title game, drops to 3-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

Graduate student Lee Sipes (Windham, N.H.) scored two goals and junior Chi Chi Price (Hingham, Mass.) tallied a goal and an assist to lead the Beavers. Sophomore Ford Carney (Garden City, N.Y.), first-year Colt Bordonaro (Portland, Ore.) and junior Matt Stucchi (Rexford, N.Y.) each notched one goal and first-year Jared Lucich (Point Pleasant, N.J.) and junior Nick Mitchell (Sudbury, Mass.) picked up four ground balls each in the setback.

Junior Caleb Holdridge (Waterford, Conn.) led the Bears with three goals, sophomore Ian Feely (Spring Branch, Texas) scored twice and senior Nate Gee (Big Flats, N.Y.) finished with a goal and four assists to lead the attack. Junior Taylor Gustafson (Littleton, Colo.) tallied a goal and an assist and first-year Ryan Hunter (Bethesa, Md.) and junior Dan Zarillo (Long Valley, N.J.) scored once each in the victory. Holdridge and senior Logan Tobias (Commack, N.Y.) each scooped up a game-high five ground balls and first-year Oliver Bolton (Darien, Conn.) collected four ground balls and three caused turnovers.

After a scoreless 10 minutes to start the game, Coast Guard erupted for five consecutive goals to close out the first quarter, including two by Holdridge and one apiece from Feely, Gee and Zarillo. Babson settled down and scored the only two goals of the second frame, one each from Price and Carney, while holding the Bears off the scoreboard.

The teams alternated a pair of goals in the third quarter, Sipes and Bordonaro scoring for the Beavers, and Sipes put in his second of the game early in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 7-5. Coast Guard killed off a man-down situation midway through the stanza and Feely scored 30 seconds later to stop any Babson momentum. Stucchi got that goal back just 46 seconds later with 6:04 on the clock, but that would be the final Beaver goal and Holdridge tacked on an insurance goal with 27 seconds remaining to seal the win.

Junior Dan Lucas (Weston, Conn.) made 12 saves on 18 shots to earn the win for the visitors, while senior Mac Mowat (Bellevue, Wash.) also made 12 saves in the loss for the Beavers.

Coast Guard finished with a 36-29 advantage in shots and 28-22 margin in ground balls. Tobias won 11-of-19 face-offs for the Bears, and Lucich was 8-of-15 at the X for Babson.

Babson is back in action next Saturday with a visit to Clark for a NEWMAC encounter at 3 p.m. Coast Guard returns home to host Wesleyan Wednesday in a non-conference matchup at 6 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is now 4-3 all-time against Coast Guard in a series that dates back to 2015.
• The Beavers have outscored their opponents 15-3 in the second quarter this season. 
• Sipes has scored at least two goals in four of the five games this spring, and six of his last eight datinf back to last season.