Men's Soccer at MIT
Saturday, October 11 | 1 p.m. 
Hartwell-Rogers Field | Babson Park, Mass. 

SERIES HISTORY 
•    Babson is 43-10-6 all-time against MIT in a series that dates back to 1976.
•    The Beavers have won four in a row but are just 1-3-1 at Hartwell-Rogers Field versus the Engineers going back to 2015. 
•    In 15 games going back to the 2012 NEWMAC Tournament semifinals, the sides have been separated by a single goal or have finished in a draw on 12 occasions. 

LAST MEETING
•    Kento Abe M'25 scored the go-ahead goal in the 75th minute as Babson edged MIT, 2-1, on October 26, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass.
•    James Donaldson M'25 opened the scoring just 2:07 into the match, junior Ted Rosenfeld picked up an assist on Abe's goal and Walker White '25 made two saves for the Beavers, who finished with an 11-8 edge in shots and attempted all six corner kicks in the contest. 
•    Jonah Gurion scored in the 23rd minute for the Engineers, who got three saves from Paolo Mangiafico. 

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
•    Babson (6-4-2, 2-0 NEWMAC) is coming off a 2-0 victory over Clark last Saturday at Hartwell-Rogers Field. 
•    Junior Alexander Yablonovskiy converted a second-minute penalty kick and completed his brace in the 51st minute for the Beavers, who got two saves from sophomore goalkeeper JB Montague. 
•    Yablonovskiy (6-1-13) ranks third in the conference in both goals and points, first-years Will Boecher (2-3-7) and Connor Hanrahan (3-0-6) each have one game-winning goal, and junior Will Lloyd (2-1-5) has a point in three of the last five games. 
•    Montague, who has started the last four games, is 5-2 with a 0.93 goals against average and a .829 save percentage to go along with three clean sheets in eight appearances on the year.

SCOUTING THE ENGINEERS
•    MIT (3-5-4, 1-1-1 NEWMAC) is unbeaten in its last two games after playing to a 2-2 draw with Gordon on Monday night. 
•    Gianluca Balestrieri scored a pair of goals and Dilin Meloni contributed an assist for the Engineers, who allowed just two shots on goal and conceded the equalizer to the Fighting Scots in the 79th minute. 
•    Shikhar Motupally (4-2-10) has produced a goal and an assist in three conference matches, Balestrieri (3-0-6) has one game-winning goal, and Meloni (2-2-6) and Woods Windham (1-2-4) are tied for the team lead in assists. 
•    Mangiafico (3-4-2) has made 11 starts and owns a 2.03 goals against average and a .630 save percentage to go along with two shutouts, while Hernando Ardila is 0-1-2 with a 1.40 goals against average, a .625 save percentage and one shutout in three appearances. 

MONTAGUE EARNS NEWMAC WEEKLY HONOR
•    After posting a 0.50 goals against average and a .875 save percentage in two starts, Montague was tabbed as the league's defensive player of the week on Monday. 
•    He made five saves, which includes stopping a penalty kick late in the first half of last Wednesday's 1-0 loss to 18th-ranked Tufts, and followed it up with a pair of saves in the shutout victory over Tufts. 

STREAKING BEAVERS
•    Babson has won 11 straight games against NEWMAC foes while conceding just two goals in the process. 
•    The Beavers are unbeaten in their last 34 conference fixtures (29-0-5) going back to October 30, 2021, a streak that began following a 1-0 loss to MIT nine days earlier on Hartwell-Rogers Field. 
•    The Green and White has won its last 18 games versus league opponents at home since the October 2021 loss to MIT. 
•    Babson has kept 10 consecutive clean sheets at home against conference foes and has not conceded a goal at in 976 minutes and 26 seconds going back to the first half of a 3-1 win over WPI on September 16, 2023. 

HONORING "WILD" WILL
•    Will McHugh, who is better known as Wild Will of Westwood, joined the Babson men's soccer program in 2014 through Team IMPACT and will be honored prior to the start of Saturday's match. 
•    Will, who suffers from Lissencephaly, is a fixture on the sidelines during games with his parents Bill and Donna, and has been a part of the program's six NCAA Tournament appearances over the last nine years.

BEAVER BITES
•    First-year Nicholas Adams and junior Huey Miller, who scored his first career goal in the Beavers' September 27 win at Springfield, have both started each of the last three games. 
•    Sophomore Constantine Tikhanovski has started two straight matches, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1-0 loss to Tufts on September 30 and 81 minutes in last Saturday's triumph over Clark.
•    Junior Titus Charles made his second start of the year and played a season-high 50 minutes last Saturday against the Cougars. 
•    Sophomore Phillip Finch and first-years Alejandro Gonzalez and Nolan Murray all saw their first game action of the season last Saturday against Clark. 

NUMBERS TO KNOW
•    The Beavers are 4-1 this season and 31-1-2 since 2021 when leading at halftime. 
•    Babson is 4-0-1 on the year and has won 40 of its last 43 games when scoring at least two goals dating back to the start of the 2021 campaign. 
•    The Green and White is 19-2-6 in the month of October since 2022.
•    The Beavers are 6-1 this fall when scoring the opening goal of the match. 

UP NEXT
•    Babson travels to Newport, R.I., to face Salve Regina next Saturday at 6 p.m.