ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Luke Pilcher and Kaden Brunson both scored five goals and Allyn French won 23 face-offs to help No. 2/3 Rochester Institute of Technology defeat No. 10/11 Babson College, 23-16, in the third round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Tiger Stadium. 

Babson, which had its five-game winning streak snapped, ends a historic season with an overall record of 16-4. RIT improves to 19-2 overall and will return to action national quarterfinals next Saturday. 

Sophomore Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) totaled five points on four goals and one assist, while senior Christian Brofft (Pottstown, Pa.), classmate Connor Karsh (Glenview, Ill.) and first-year Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) all scored twice to lead the Beavers. Graduate student Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.) became the program's single-season points leader, senior Grey Sunderland (Bellevue, Wash.) won 12-of-26 face-offs and scooped up eight ground balls, and junior Alex Fascilla (Huntington, N.Y.) made 10 saves in the loss. 

French led all players with 14 ground balls, Jake Erickson totaled three goals and one assist, and Dylan Bruno and Clifford Gatson both scored twice for the Tigers. Hunter FitzGibbons contributed six ground balls and two caused turnovers, while Alex Zborowski turned away 13 shots in the win. 

Down 2-1 just over three minutes into the contest, Brofft scored twice and Karsh and junior Max Mallett (Alexandria, Va.) both recorded a goal to help the Green and White build a 5-2 advantage to go in the opening quarter. Pilcher and Bruno both scored twice as RIT answered with a six-goal burst to take an 8-5 lead with 11:43 to go in the second before Matthews stopped the run with the first of his two tallies just 52 seconds later. 

Erickson and Pilcher scored 25 second apart to push the Tigers' lead to 10-6 at the 9:21 mark before the Beavers tallied three of the final four goals in the stanza to get within two at the break. Senior Jacob Tauss (San Marcos, Calif.) made it 10-7 with 7:06 to go before halftime and Ranville and Smith scored over the final 4:03 of the period to pull Babson within 11-9. 

RIT got goals from Caleb Commandant and Erickson over the first 64 seconds of the third quarter and the teams traded the next six markers before first-year Bruno Batty (Jamaica Plain, Mass.) cut the Beavers' deficit to 16-13 on his second goal of the year 53 seconds into the fourth. Unfortunately, the Green and White was unable to get any closer as Bruno scored twice during a three-goal spurt to extend the Tigers' lead back to 19-13 with 10:42 remaining in the game. 

Senior Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) set up tallies by first-year Luke Wang (Simsbury, Conn.) and Smith, while Sunderland scored off the ensuing face-off as the Beavers made one final push to get within 20-16 with 8:14 to play. Brunson answered with two goals in just 37 seconds to make it a six-goal difference with 6:22 left and notched his fifth goal of the game with under four minutes to go for the final margin. 

Babson outshot the hosts 60-48 and went 1-for-2 on extra-man opportunities, while RIT finished with a 24-19 edge in face-offs and a 46-40 advantage in ground balls. 

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 0-2 all-time against RIT with both losses coming in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. 
•    Rainville, who extended his scoring streak to 47 straight games on Saturday, finished the season with 78 goals and 103 points to become the single-season program leader in both categories passing Josh Shafer '95, who put up 71 goals and 102 points back in 1995. 
•    Sunderland concludes his career with all-time school records of 634 face-offs won and 405 ground balls. 
•    Saturday's loss was just the second for the Beavers over its last 31 games when scoring at least 14 goals.