No. 11 Men's Soccer vs. No. 13 Trinity (Texas)
NCAA Tournament Sectional Semifinal
Saturday, November 23 | 1 p.m. 
South Street Field | Middlebury, Vt. 

WHAT TO KNOW
•    The Babson College men's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Tournament sectionals for the first time since 2011 with back-to-back shutout victories at Hartwell-Rogers Field last weekend. 
•    The Beavers will travel to Middlebury, Vt., for a third-round contest against No. 13 Trinity (Texas) on Saturday, while the third-ranked Panthers will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the other sectional semifinal on Saturday. 

SCHEDULE
Sectional Semifinals | Saturday, November 23
No. 1 Middlebury (16-1-3) vs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (16-3-3), 10:30 a.m.
No. 11 Babson (16-1-6) vs. No. 13 Trinity (19-0-3), 1 p.m. 

Sectional Final | Sunday, November 24
Advancing teams, 12:30 p.m. 

SERIES HISTORY
•    Babson and Trinity will meet for the first time on Saturday. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 32nd (30th in Division III)
Best NCAA Finish: 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III national champions 
•    No. 11 Babson (16-1-6) has won nine consecutive games and followed up Saturday's 1-0 victory over St. John Fisher with a 1-0 second round triumph over Wesleyan. 
•    Senior Matias Gutierrez scored in the 82nd minute of Saturday's NCAA Tournament opener and classmate Liam Rhatigan scored the decisive goal in the 52nd minute on Sunday for the Beavers, who got three saves in each contest from senior goalkeeper Walker White to reach the sectionls for the first time since 2011.
•    Graduate student Kento Abe (8-6-22) leads the team with five game-winning goals, classmate James Donaldson (7-6-20) has produced a point in five of the last seven matches, and the trio of Rhatigan (6-1-13), Gutierrez (5-3-13) and sophomore Alexander Yablonovskiy (5-3-13) has combined for six goals and three assists over the last five games. 
•    White has started all 23 matches this fall and ranks third in Division III in both goals against average (0.45) and shutouts (13) and is 17th nationally with a .851 save percentage. 
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
NCAA Tournament Appearance: 26th
Best NCAA Finish: 2003 Division III national champions 
•    No. 13 Trinity (19-0-3) has won six consecutive games and cruised into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with back-to-back 3-0 victories over Belhaven and Bowdoin last Friday and Saturday in San Antonio. 
•    Joey Perryman had a goal and an assist against the Blazers, who were reduced to 10 men less than 10 minutes into the match, and Adam Knutson scored twice in a span of less than four minutes early in the second half versus the Polar Bears as the Tigers extended the nation's longest winning streak to 22 games. 
•    Knutson (17-6-40) has a point in six consecutive games and 14 of his last 15 matches,  Hunter Cain (12-2-26) has set new career highs in goals and points this fall, and the duo of Samuel Theiss (6-6-18) and Will Powell (2-10-14) has combined for 16 assists on this year for Division III's fifth-ranked scoring offense. 
•    Omkar Satpathy is 16-0-3 in 19 games this fall and ranks 11th in Division III in goals against average (0.58) to go along with a .730 save percentage and five solo shutouts. 

BEAVERS IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
•    Babson is making its 32nd NCAA Tournament appearance and 13th in the last 16 years. 
•    The 1975, 1979 and 1980 Division III national champions also advanced to the national semifinals in both 1977 and 1991 and reached the sectional semifinals in 2010 and 2011.
•    The Green and White has dropped its last two sectional semifinal matches falling to Rutgers-Camden 1-0 in 2011 and Middlebury 1-0 in 2010. 
•    Babson is seeking its first trip to the national quarterfinals since 1991 when it topped Cortland 3-0.

EIGHT EARN ALL-NEWMAC HONORS
•    After going unbeaten in league play and outscoring its opponents 30-2 in nine matches, eight Beavers were recognized when the NEWMAC released its all-conference teams late last week. 
•    White, Donaldson, Abe, Rhatigan, senior Samuel Kalishman and junior Liam Goldstein were named to the first team, while the backline duo of gradate student Marco Cerezo and junior Joao Araujo both collected second-team accolades. 

LEGENDS ON THE SIDELINE
•    Babson head coach Jon Anderson '75, who is now in his 39th season, and Trinity head coach Paul McGinlay in his 34th season have combined for more than 1,000 wins over the last three-plus decades. 
•    Anderson ranks third among active Division III coaches and is 12th all-time with 470 victories, while McGinlay is second among active coaches and fifth all-time in Division III with 571 wins. 

DOMINATING DEFENSES
•    Babson is tied for first in Division III with 15 shutouts, which are its most since 1991, and has kept six consecutive clean sheets going back to October 30. 
•    The Beavers have given up their fewest goals (10) since 1990 and rank second in Division III in both goals against average (0.44) and shutouts per game (.652). 
•    Not to be outdone, Trinity is third in Division III in both goals against average (0.46) and shutouts (14).

STREAKING BEAVERS
•    The Green and White has won nine consecutive games while outscoring its foes 21-1.
•    Babson enters Saturday's match having not conceded a goal in over 607 minutes dating back to a 2-1 win at MIT on October 26, which is the longest run without allowing a goal since 2022 when it went nearly 673 minutes between opponent tallies. 
•    In addition to being the longest active streak in Division III, the Beavers' nine straight wins are their most since rattling off nine consecutive victories to reach the 2008 NCAA Tournament. 

MAKING HIS MARK ON THE RECORD BOOKS
•    White has put together one of the best season's by a goalkeeper in Babson history and enters the weekend tied for third on the program's single-season list in wins (16), ranks fifth with the lowest goals against average (0.45) since Steve Webber '92 in 1990, and his 11 shutouts are the most since 2006. 
•    In 66 career games for the Beavers, White ranks third in goals against average (0.64), fifth in both wins (41) and shutouts (29) and fourth in minutes played (5,669). 

FAMILIAR SURROUNDINGS
•    Babson will make the drive to Middlebury, Vt., for the third time in just over a calendar year this weekend after playing Johns Hopkins on South Street Field in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament in addition to suffering its only loss of this year's campaign to the Panthers on October 13. 
•    The Beavers, who fell to Johns Hopkins 4-3 in 2OT last November, have gone 22-2-12 over their last 36 games with both setbacks coming on Middlebury's campus. 

WHEN 90 MINUTES ISN'T ENOUGH
•    After abolishing regular overtime in the regular season three years ago, teams will play two 10-minute periods of sudden death overtime if the game is tied at the end of regulation. 
•    Should the contest remain tied after 110 minutes, it will be decided on penalty kicks.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 4-1-4 on the road this season and have won their last three outings. 
•    Babson is 16-0-6 when leading or tied at halftime this fall. 
•    The Green and White is 16-0-3 when scoring the first goal of the match on the year and 72-5-8 when doing so going back to 2018.
•    Over the last three seasons, the Beavers are 39-1-15 when conceding one goal or fewer, while Trinity has scored two or more goals in 18 of its last 20 games.
•    Babson is 10-0-2 in Saturday matches this season.
•    The Green and White is 11-0 this fall when scoring at least two goals. 
•    The Beavers' 16 wins are their most since 2014 and two shy of the single-season program record of 18 set back in 1991.

UP NEXT
•    The team that advances from Saturday's match will face either No. 3 Middlebury or Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Sunday's sectional final at 12:30 p.m. with a spot in the Final Four in Las Vegas on the line.