Box Score DUDLEY, Mass.—Graduate student Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.) and first-year Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) combined for 10 goals and four assists to help visiting Babson College cruise past Nichols College, 17-6, in non-conference men's lacrosse action on Tuesday night at Venditti Field. 

With the win, Babson improves to 2-2 on the year. Nichols, which was off to its best start since 2018, suffered its first loss to slip to 3-1 overall. 

Rainville finished with season highs of seven goals and two assists for nine points while Rooney added three goals and two assists for five points to pace the Beavers' offense. Senior Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) and sophomore Jack Feeks (Georgetown, Mass.) also scored twice, classmate Will Reading (Southlake, Texas) won 11-of-20 face-offs and scooped up five ground balls, and junior Alex Fascilla (Huntington, N.Y.) made 10 saves in first collegiate start. 

Junior CJ Cadigan (Saugus, Mass.) scored twice and sophomore Joey Lachance (Watertown, Conn.) recorded two assists for the Bison. Classmate Travis Arnold (East Longmeadow, Mass.) won 11-of-22 face-offs and tied for game-high honors with six ground balls, senior Cooper Melvin (Castleton, Vt.) led all players with four caused turnovers and the duo of junior Bradley Morgan (Framingham, Mass.) and sophomore Carter Renaud (Hampton, N.H.) combined to stop seven shots in the loss. 

The Green and White got goals from Tauss, Rainville and senior Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) to build a 3-0 lead less than four minutes into the contest. Cadigan scored twice over the final 7:27 of the first quarter to cut the margin to 4-2 before the Beavers pulled away by outscoring Nichols 9-1 in the second quarter. 

Rainville opened the stanza with four consecutive tallies to make it 8-2 at the 7:53 mark and Rooney followed with back-to-back goals for a 10-2 advantage with 6:13 to go before halftime. The duo each tacked on another goal extending the lead to 12-2 with 3:57 remaining and first-year Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) answered a score by Bison graduate student Ryan Warner (Grafton, Mass.) with 18 seconds to go for a 13-3 edge at the break. 

First-year Shea Ullo (Bourne, Mass.) notched the first goal of the second half with 8:10 left in the third quarter to make it 13-4 before Babson scored the next four to take its largest lead of the game at 17-4 on junior Emmett Martin's (Milton, Mass.) tally with 8:51 to go in the contest. Rainville scored his seventh marker of the night and set up Feeks' first goal in the final 91 seconds of the third before Feeks struck again with just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth.

The Beavers finished with a slim 37-35 edge in shots, assisted on 11 of their 17 goals and recorded nine caused turnovers from nine different players in the win. The Bison held a 36-35 advantage in ground balls and converted 2-of-4 extra-man opportunities. 

Babson returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Western New England at 1 p.m., while Nichols faces Alfred on Sunday at 12 p.m. in Bel Air, Md.

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 18-10 all-time against Nichols although Tuesday's contest was the first between the teams since 1993. 
•    Babson has now scored at least 13 goals in 11 of their last 12 games going back to last season.
•    Rainville extended his points streak to 32 games, while sophomore Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) has at least one assist in 12 straight outings. 
•    The Beavers have won their last 27 games when leading after three quarters, a streak that dates back to the start of the 2020 season.