NORTON, Mass.—Sophomore Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) matched his career-high with four goals and Babson jumped out to an 11-1 halftime lead on the way to a 16-5 victory over Wheaton College in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's lacrosse match-up at Nordin Field.

With the win, Babson gets back to the .500 mark at 7-7 overall and improves to 3-2 in the NEWMAC, clinching a conference playoff berth, while Wheaton drops to 9-5 overall and 1-5 in conference play.

Senior Peter Chisholm (Westford, Mass.) tallied three goals and an assist and sophomore Connor Karsh (Glenview, Ill.) added three goals for the Beavers. Junior Nick Mitchell (Sudbury, Mass.) contributed two goals and two assists, graduate student Lee Sipes (Windham, N.H.) chipped in with two goals and junior Matt Stucchi (Rexford, N.Y.) produced three assists, all in the first quarter, in the victory.

Sophomore Grey Sunderland (Bellevue, Wash.) won 16 of 19 face-offs and picked up 10 ground balls, senior Drew Thomas (Jacksonville Beach, Fla.) recorded a team-high three caused turnovers and senior Mac Mowat (Bellevue, Wash.) made eight saves on 10 shots in goal in the win.

Senior Alex Berg (Southport, Conn.) led the Lyons with two goals and one assist, and junior Shane Ross (Hanson, Mass.) and first-years Mike McLaughlin (Stoughton, Mass.) and Charlie Racine (Oradell, N.J.) scored once each. Sophomore Jacob Wharton (Worcester, Mass.) posted a game-high six caused turnovers and first-year John Drew (North Andover, Mass.) and junior Cory Bannon (Hopkinton, Mass.) combined for 15 saves in the loss.

The two teams traded goals in the first five minutes, Karsh scoring for Babson and Ross for Wheaton. That was it for the Lyons as the Beavers took over. Bower scored his first two and Mitchell added one to make it a 4-1 lead for the visitors after one. The Green and White then outscored the hosts 7-0 in the second quarter to take command of the game, as Karsh and Chisholm scored twice each and Mitchell, Sipes and Bower put in one apiece.

Chisholm tacked on his third of the game midway through the third quarter before Wheaton broke its 35-minute drought on McLaughlin's man-up goal with five minutes to go in the quarter. Sophomore Alex Fairman (Fayetteville, Ark.) countered with a man-up goal for Babson to make it 13-2 after three. Each team scored three times in the fourth quarter for the 16-5 final.

Babson had a dominant 56-30 advantage in shots, including 36-15 in the first half, and won 18 of 22 face-offs. The Green and White won the ground ball battle, 35-18.

The Beavers play their final regular season game next Saturday at 1 p.m. at league-leading MIT (13-0, 5-0 NEWMAC). The Lyons wind up their season Wednesday at 7 p.m. with a non-conference game at New England College.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 28-9 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1992, and each of the last eight victories since 2015 have come by at least six goals.
• Babson is 7-0 this spring when leading after three quarters and has won 13 in a row going back to the start of last season.
• The Green and White are 6-1 this spring when holding the opponents to eight goals or fewer, and 25-3 since the start of the 2018 campaign.