No. 14 Men's Soccer at Wheaton
Saturday, October 19 | 2:00 p.m.
Keefe Field | Norton, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 26-20-0 all-time against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1990.
• The Beavers have won 10 in a row and 13 of the last 15 matches against the Lyons, which includes four consecutive victories in Norton. 
• Ten of the last 14 games between the sides have been decided by one goal.

LAST MEETING
• Graduate student Samuel Kalishman scored his first goal of the season in the 68th minute as 15th-ranked and second-seeded Babson pulled out a 1-0 victory over third-seeded Wheaton in a NEWMAC tournament semifinal on November 2, 2023, on the turf at MacDowell Field.
• Junior Derek Polanco registered the win in goal, making four saves in his first career start and posting his first clean sheet for the Beavers, who finished with a 13-11 margin in shots.
• Junior Michael O'Gara made three saves in goal at the other end of the field for the Lyons.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 14 Babson (7-1-6, 2-0-1 NEWMAC) suffered its first loss of the season with a 3-1 setback at No. 4 Middlebury on Sunday after conceding a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the game.
• Senior goalkeeper Walker White was terrific in defeat for the Beavers, finishing with a season-high 10 saves, including a number of highlight-reel stops. Classmate Liam Rhatigan scored for the second game in a row and graduate student Kento Abe provided an assist in the loss. 
• Abe (4-3-11) has three goals and an assist in his last four games while graduate student James Donaldson (2-5-9) has four assists in his last six games and is tied for third in the NEWMAC in assists. Rhatigan (4-0-8) has scored four goals in his last four games and shares the team goal scoring lead, sophomore Alexander Yablonovskiy (3-2-8) has two goals and one assist in his last five games and classmate McKenzy Pierre (3-1-7) has three goals and a helper in his last four outings
• White (0.66 GAA, 39 svs, 5 SO) ranks 33rd in Division III in goals against average and 37th in shutouts per game.

SCOUTING THE LYONS
• Wheaton (6-3-4, 1-0-2 NEWMAC) is unbeaten in its last six games (3-0-3), including back-to-back scoreless draws at Endicott on October 8 and at WPI last Saturday.
• O'Gara registered a pair of saves in the tie against Endicott and six stops in the deadlock against the Engineers. Wheaton was ranked No. 21 in Division III last week before falling out of the top 25 following the two draws.
• Senior Alasdair Ferrier (8-1-17) tallied a hat trick in a win over Coast Guard on September 29 and is second in the NEWMAN in goals and third in points. Senior Ryan Bell (3-2-8) and junior Aidan Doyle (3-1-7) are also offensive threats and first-year Gael Vera (2-1-5) had a goal and an assist in the win over Coast Guard.
• O'Gara (0.55 GAA, 33 svs) has started all 12 games for the Lyons and leads the NEWMAC in goals against average and save percentage (.846).

THE PLAYOFF PICTURE
• Approaching the midway point of the NEWMAC portion of the schedule, Coast Guard (3-1-0) has the conference lead with nine points while Babson (2-0-1) and Springfield (2-1-1) are tied for second with seven points.
• Wheaton (1-0-2) is holding down fourth place with five points and there's a three-way tie with four points for the final two playoffs spots among Salve Regina (1-1-1), MIT (1-2-1) and WPI (0-0-4).

BABSON VS. THE NEWMAC
• Babson has outscored its three NEWMAC opponents this season by a count of 11-1.
• The Beavers have just one loss in 39 games against conference opponents (28-1-10) in the regular season since the start of the 2018 campaign.

NEWMAC WEEKLY HONOR
• Abe was tabbed as the league's offensive player of the week on Monday.
• The grad transfer from the University of Maryland put together a big weekend with two goals and one assist for five points, including the first two-goal game of his career early in the second half of Saturday's 5-0 win over Salve Regina and setting up a tying goal early in the second half in an eventual 3-1 loss at No. 4 Middlebury on Sunday.

ON THE DEFENSE
• Babson is ranked 26th among more than 400 teams in Division III in team goals against average (0.64).
• The Beavers have allowed just nine goals in 14 games this year, with seven shutouts.
• The Green and White have not conceded more than one goal in 20 of the last 22 matches going back to last season.

STREAKING BEAVERS
• Babson had its 22-game regular season unbeaten streak (11-0-11) snapped in the loss at Middlebury.
• The Beavers are 9-0-4 in their last 13 home fixtures going back to October 3 of last season. 
• The Green and White are riding a 25-game unbeaten streak against NEWMAC foes (20-0-5) going back to October 30, 2022. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 7-0-3 this season and 42-1-6 since 2021 when scoring the opening goal of the game.
• The Beavers are unbeaten this season (5-0) and 28-1-1 over the last four seasons when scoring at least two goals.
• The Green and White is 18-1-12 over the last two years when conceding one goal or fewer. 

UP NEXT
• Babson returns home to host Springfield on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Hartwell-Rogers Field.