BABSON PARK, Mass.—Junior Michael Shaw (Canton, Mass.) scored four goals as defending national runner-up and No. 5/6 Union College overcame a career-best six-goal performance by Babson College graduate student Will Spangenberg (Dover, Mass.) to pull out a 14-9 victory over the host Beavers in a non-conference men's lacrosse game Sunday afternoon at MacDowell Fied.

With the loss, Babson evens its record at 1-1 on the season while Union opens its season at 1-0.

Spangenberg added an assist to his offensive output, while junior Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) collected three assists. Senior Chi Chi Price (Hingham, Mass.), first-year Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and graduate student Ryan Kenney (Hingham, Mass.) scored one goal each, senior Nick Solomon (Glencoe, Ill.) had one assist, and senior goalie Will Parducci (Manhattan Beach, Calif) made 16 saves in an impressive performance in goal.

Junior Jake Mabardy (Winchester, Mass.) tallied two goals and three assists for the Dutchmen, senior Jake Titus (Sudbury, Mass.) added two goals and senior Peter Burnes (Natick, Mass.) finished with four assists. Juniors Zach Davis (Deerfield, Mass.), Justin Greene (Norwell, Mass.) and Nick DeNave (Coopersburg, Pa.) and sophomores Hazen Pike (Haverhill, Mass.), Matt Blasi (Reading, Mass.) and Patrick Reilly (Kenilworth, Ill.) scored one goal each and junior Matthew Paolatto (Sherborn, Mass.) won 14 of 22 face-offs with nine ground balls in the victory. Junior Dan Donohue (Weston, Mass.) made 11 saves to earn the win in goal.

Union scored the first four goals of the game, one each from Davis, Mabardy, Shaw and DeNave, the last coming with two minutes to go in the opening frame. Babson responded with three unanswered goals, including two by Spangenberg and one by Smith, to cut the deficit to 4-3 with 12 minutes remaining in the second. The Dutchmen came back and got goals from Reilly and Shaw to take a 6-3 lead into halftime.

After Shaw opened the second-half scoring for Union, Babson tallied three of the next four goals, including two more from Spangenberg and one from Price, to pull to within 8-6 with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. Union had an answer for that surge as well, answering with three straight goals, one each from Mabardy, Shaw and Pike, to regain the five-goal lead after three, 11-6.

Babson scored three times in the fourth quarter, one by Kenney and two by Spangenberg, but each time Union answered with goals by Blasi, Titus and Greene to prevent any Beaver momentum.

The Dutchmen finished with a 52-41 advantage in shots and a 32-26 margin in ground balls while winning 15 of 26 face-offs. Each team scored twice in man-up situations, Union in four opportunities and Babson in seven.

The Beavers are home again on Wednesday, March 8, when they host Trinity at 7 p.m. at MacDowell Field. Union returns home for the first of four straight home games at Frank Bailey Field on Wednesday, March 1, at 4 p.m. against Endicott.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 0-14 all-time against Union in a series that dates back to 2009.
• The nine goals by the Beavers were the third-highest total in the 14 games in the series against the Dutchmen.
• Spangenberg's previous career high was five goals for Holy Cross against Boston University on March 19, 2022.
• Union head coach Derek Witheford is a native of Wellesley, Mass., and played his high school lacrosse under current Babson head coach Rocky Batty at Wellesley High School.