Men's Lacrosse at Coast Guard
Saturday, March 18 | 1 p.m.
Cadet Memorial Field | New London, Conn.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 4-3 all-time against Coast Guard in a series that dates back to 2015.
• The Bears have won three of the last four meetings between the teams since 2018 although the Beavers are 3-1 all-time at Cadet Memorial Field.
• Four of the seven games between the Green and White and Coast Guard have been decided by three goals or fewer.

LAST MEETING
• Senior Caleb Holdridge scored two of his three goals in the first quarter and junior Ian Feely tallied twice to help Coast Guard defeat the Beavers, 9-6, on March 19, 2022, in Babson Park.
• Logan Tobias won 11-of-19 face-offs and senior Dan Lucas finished with 12 saves for the Bears, who raced out to a 5-0 first-quarter lead in the victory.
• Lee Sipes '21 M'22 had two goals and senior Chi Chi Price registered a goal and an assist for Babson, which cut its deficit to two twice in the fourth quarter.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (3-1, 0-0 NEWMAC) has won its last two games and is coming off a 17-11 win at Western New England last Sunday.
• Price scored five times, graduate student Ryan Kenney added four goals and senior Matt Stucchi tallied three times in his season debut for the Beavers, who led 12-1 with 3:33 to go in the second quarter.
• Graduate student Will Spangenberg (11-11-22) ranks second in the league in assists and third in points, Price (15-1-16) and Kenney (13-2-15) combined for 19 goals in two games last week, and junior Topher Bower (2-8-10) dished out four assists in the win at Western New England.
• Junior Grey Sunderland has won 36-of-73 face-offs (49.3 percent), senior Kyle Sanborn leads the defense with nine ground balls and three caused turnovers, and classmate Will Parducci owns an 11.03 goals against average to go along with a .552 save percentage in four starts between the pipes.

SCOUTING THE BEARS
• Coast Guard (3-1, 0-0 NEWMAC) is looking to bounce back from a 10-7 loss at Maritime (N.Y.) on Wednesday.
• Holdridge had two goals and two assists, Gustafson scored twice and sophomore Oliver Bolton finished with seven ground balls and six caused turnovers for the Bears, who were outscored 6-2 over the final 23 minutes of the contest.
• Gustafson (12-2-14) has scored nine times over the last two games, Holdridge (7-5-12) leads the team in assists and senior Gaige Kruger (8-2-10) has three straight multi-point outings.
• Senior Gunnar Brodfuehrer has won 27-of-62 face-offs (43.5 percent), Bolton leads the defense with 20 ground balls and 12 caused turnovers, and Lucas owns a 9.69 goals against average and a .611 save percentage in four starts.

PARDUCCI EARNS WEEKLY RECOGNITION
• After posting a 10.50 goals against average and making 31 saves in wins over Trinity and Western New England, Parducci was selected as the NEWMAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
• He stopped a career-high 18 shots in Sunday's win over the Golden Bears.

ENTERING THE NEILA POLL
• After receiving votes in the preseason and Week 1 poll, the Beavers were 10th in the latest edition of the NEILA Division III rankings released on Monday.
• The Green and White is one of three NEWMAC squads in the poll along with No. 5 MIT and No. 8 Coast Guard.

ALL CLEAR
• Babson enters Saturday's contest ranked 10th in Division III with a .899 clearing percentage through its first four games, which includes being successful on 43-of-46 chances (.935) in the wins over Trinity and Western New England.
• The Beavers' first four opponents have been successful on just .753 percent of their clearing chances and only Union (17-of-21) has converted more than 80 percent of its opportunities.

POLL POSITION
• Babson, which suffered a two-goal loss to MIT in last year's NEWMAC semifinals, received a pair of first-place votes and was picked to finish second in the league's preseason coaches' behind the Engineers poll back in February.
• Coast Guard, which finished second a season ago, was picked to come in fourth.

A HOUSE DIVIDED
• Babson graduate student Michael La Forte will face his father, Coast Guard head coach Ray La Forte, for the first time with the Beavers and for the third time in his career on Saturday.
• The Waterford, Conn., native had a goal and three assists for four points to help Grove City beat the Bears 16-15 in 2OT in 2020 and finished with four assists as Coast Guard avenged the loss with a 21-11 victory when the teams met last season in Maryland.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 3-0 this season and have won 17 consecutive games since the start of 2020 when carrying a lead into the fourth quarter.
• Babson is 3-0 this season when scoring at least 10 goals and has put up 17 goals in back-to-back games for the first time since 2021.
• The Green and White has won seven consecutive games and is 11-3 since the start of last season when allowing 11 goals or fewer.
• The Beavers have outscored their first four opponents 17-8 in the second quarter this spring.

UP NEXT
• Babson hosts Clark next Saturday at 12 p.m.