WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.—Senior Calvin Caputo (Pennington, N.J.) and junior Matthew Johnson (Somerset, N.J.) scored back-to-back goals less than a minute apart midway through a seesaw fourth quarter and No. 18 Williams College held on for a dramatic 14-13 victory over No. 20/19 Babson College in non-conference men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Farley-Lamb Field.

With the outcome, Babson dropped its second straight one-goal game to a nationally-ranked team and falls to 1-2 on the season while Williams, playing its season opener, starts out at 1-0.

First-year Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) scored four goals and senior Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill. ) added four points with two goals and two assists for the Beavers. Graduate student Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.) and senior Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) contributed two goals and an assist apiece, sophomore Luke D'Orsi (Jamestown, R.I.) added two goals, and senior Christian Brofft (Pottstown, Pa.) finished with one goal in the setback.

Graduate student James Turco (Woodbury, N.Y.) won 18-of-29 faceoffs and grabbed eight ground balls for the Green and White. Senior Dillon Quinn (Spring Lake, N.J.) recorded a game-high three caused turnovers, while senior Bryan Hanley (Plainview, N.Y.) and junior goalie Alex Fascilla (Huntington, N.Y.) combined for 16 saves in the Beaver goal.

Caputo finished with eight goals to lead the Ephs, while junior Harrison Cross (Pittsford, N.Y.) tallied two goals and an assist. Fellow junior Matthew Johnson (Somerset, N.J.) added two scores, sophomore Will Doran (Princeton, N.J.) and senior Finlay Macknight (Alexandria, Va.) chipped in with one goal each, and sophomore Ian Kim (Berwyn, Pa.) scooped up seven ground balls. Junior Matt Wetmore (Virginia Beach, Va.) made 17 saves in the win for the hosts.

The hosts came out strong in the first quarter, taking a 7-2 on the strength of five goals by Caputo and one each from Macknight and Johnson. Rooney scored both Beaver goals to keep the score as close as it was.

Babson regrouped and opened the second quarter with  four unanswered goals while keeping the Ephs off the scoreboard until the final minute. D'Orsi scored with 9:03 on the clock, Rainville set up Tauss for a goal at 6:23, Brofft notched one at 3:14 and Rainville converted a pass from sophomore Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) with 1:21 remaining to cut the margin to 7-6. Doran got one back for Williams with 17 seconds remaining to send the teams into the break with the home team holding a two-goal lead.

Cross fired in a man-up goal for Williams in the first minute of the second half and then set up Caputo for a goal midway through the frame as the Eph lead went back up to four goals at 10-6, but Babson came alive with six consecutive goals over the last five minutes of the third quarter and first minute of the final stanza to take a 12-10 advantage. Rainville started the rally with 5:11 to go in the third, Rooney went back-to-back with assists from Bower at 4:15 and 3:02, and Tauss followed with a goal at 1:56 to even the score at 10-all after three quarters, and Bower and D'Orsi gave Babson a 12-10 advantage with 14 minutes remaining.

Caputo and Cross scored goals in less than a minute to even the score at 12-all but Bower answered for Babson with 10:54 on the clock to give the Beavers their final lead. Caputo tied the score again with 9.56 remaining and Johnson scored what would be the game-winner with 9:12 to go.

Fascilla made three saves for Babson in the final nine minutes to prevent further damage. Williams killed off a 30-second penalty and Wetmore made two saves in the final 10 minutes Williams, including his final stop with one second remaining to preserve the victory.

Babson finished with a 49-37 advantage in shots while Williams had a narrow 34-33 margin in ground balls. The Ephs scored once in four man-up situations while the Beavers came up empty in five man-up chances. The Green and White won 20 of the game's 31 faceoffs.

The Beavers are back in action on Tuesday with their fourth straight road game at Nichols at 7 p.m. Williams hosts No. 11/13 Union on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 1-3 all-time against Williams with all four meetings coming since 2022, although Babson's only win came in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
• The Beavers have lost two straight games by scores of 14-13; The team won three consecutive games by the score on 15-14 late last season.
• The Green and White lost for just the third time in their last 13 games since the start of last season when winning the faceoff battle.