BABSON PARK, Mass.— Graduate student Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.) tallied five goals and an assist, and first-year Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) and sophomore Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) added four points apiece as Babson College knocked off Western New England University, 15-11, in the men's lacrosse home opener Saturday afternoon at MacDowell Field.

Babson won its second straight game to improve to 3-2 on the season while Western New England dropped its second in a row and fell to 2-3.

Rooney contributed three goals and an assist and Smith produced a goal and three assists in the win. Senior Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) notched with two goals and an assist and seniors Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) and Connor Karsh (Glenview, Ill.) and first-years Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) and Rowan Mondello (Wakefield, Mass.) chipped in with one goal each for the Beavers.

Senior Grey Sunderland (Bellevue, Wash.) won 10-of-17 face-offs and scooped up four ground balls. Senior Brendan Maher (Melrose, Mass.) caused three turnovers on defense and junior Alex Fascilla (Huntington, N.Y.) recorded his third straight double-digit save performance with a career-high 14 stops in the Beaver goal.

Junior Jack Houlden (Peabody, Mass.) led the visitors with five goals and an assist and graduate student Dylan Hanley (New Fairfield, Conn.) contributed a game-high five assists. Senior James Wrynn (Guilford, Conn.) and junior Zachary Mein (Latham, N.Y.) scored two goals apiece and senior Joseph Bussinelli (Ridgewood, N.J.) and sophomore Thomas Labbe (Brunswick, Maine) produced one goal each.

Sophomore Chris Catuosco (Commack, N.Y.) won 13-of-23 faceoffs and scooped up a game-high seven ground balls, first-year David Noel (Hampden, Mass.) caused eight turnovers, and grad student Carter Randall (Sammamish, Wash.) finished with six saves in goal.

The Golden Bears came out strong early on with three goals in the first five minutes of the game, two by Mein and one from Wrynn. The Beavers bounced back with four in a row as Tauss and Bower found the back of the net before the end of the  first quarter and Rooney went back-to-back in the second quarter. Bussinelli stopped the bleeding for WNE and tied the score at 4-all with 2:35 remaining in the quarter but Rainville scored with 12 seconds remaining in the half to send the Beavers into the break with a 5-4 advantage.

The Beavers opened the second half with three goals in the first two minutes, one each from Rainville, Tauss and Smith, to open up an 8-4 margin. The Golden Bears answered with three in a row of their own, including two from Houlden and one from Wrynn, to cut the margin to one, but Babson responded with three goals in the final three minutes of the third stanza to regain a four-goal lead at 11-7.

Houlden opened the scoring for the visitors in the final frame but the Babson offense proved too strong as another three-goal rally, including the first career goal by Mondello, another from Rooney and the second career goal by Matthews, pushed the margin to 14-8. The Golden Bears outscored Babson 3-1 over the final eight minutes but the deficit was too large to overcome.

Western New England had a 38-36 advantage in shots while Babson had a slight 35-32 margin in ground balls. The Green and White won 16 of the 30 face-offs and the Golden Bears scored the only man-up goal of the game.

The Beavers are back in action on Sunday, hosting No. 6/5 Middlebury at MacDowell Field at 1 p.m. The Golden Bears play again on March 19 against Nazareth in Wingate, N.C.

GAME NOTES
• Babson and Western New England are tied 14-14 all-time in the all-time series that dates back to 1987.
• All three wins this season for the Green and White have come against teams from the Commonwealth Coast Conference – Roger Williams, Nichols and Western New England.
• The Beavers are 29-2 since the start of the 2020 season when leading at halftime.
• Babson is 12-3 since the start of last season when winning at least 50 percent of the faceoffs.