No. 20/20 Men's Lacrosse at No. 9/9 Bowdoin
Wednesday, March 26 | 7:00 p.m.
Whittier Field | Brunswick, Maine

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 3-22 all-time against Bowdoin in a series that dates back to 1978.
• The Beavers snapped an 18-game losing streak to the Polar Bears last year in Babson Park going back to 1981, although the teams did not play from 1984-87 and 1999-2014.
• Both teams enter Wednesday's contest ranked nationally for the third consecutive season.

LAST MEETING
• No. 17/16 Babson got a career-high 21 saves from senior goalkeeper Alex Fascilla and used a 10-goal run that spanned parts of three quarters to knock off No. 9/9 Bowdoin, 13-6, on March 26, 2024, at MacDowell Field.
• Jared Rainville M'24 and graduate student Jacob Tauss led the Beaver offense with two goals and an assist, junior Bennett Smith added a goal and two assists, and grad student Topher Bower and sophomore Seamus Rooney chipped in with two goals in the win. Dillon Quinn '24 and senior Brendan Maher each caused two turnovers and anchored a defense that held Bowdoin to 11 goals below its season average.
• Will Byrne '24 tallied four goals and an assist for the Polar Bears, all four goals coming in the final 16 minutes of the game in a comeback attempt. Zack Goorno '24 chipped in with a goal and an assist, senior Jason Lach scored once, and senior Robert Hobbs made 11 saves in goal in the setback.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• No. 20 USILA/No. 20 USA Lacrosse Magazine Babson (6-2, 1-1 NEWMAC) pulled out a last-second victory over conference rival MIT, 15-14, on Saturday at MacDowell Field.
• Sophomore Camden Matthews scored a career-high seven goals, including the game-winner with 2.3 seconds to play. Graduate student Justin Greene contributed three goals and two assists, sophomore Sam Sisk added two goals and two helpers, and Rooney tallied a game-high three assists. Rooney, junior Will Reading, and senior Riley Shaw shared team-high honors with four ground balls each, and Fascilla finished with 12 saves in goal in the victory.
• Rooney (14-15-29) has at least one goal in seven of eight games this season, Matthews (22-3-25) has exceeded his career high in scoring, and Smith (9-9-18) has a team-high four man-up goals. Sophomore Anthony Stillwell (12-1-13), Greene (10-3-13) and Bower (3-10-13) are all offensive threats for the Beavers.
• Graduate Student Tripp Clark leads the team with 14 caused turnovers and 38 ground balls while senior Gavin Bailey has forced eight turnovers. Fascilla (6-2, 8.49 GAA, .567 sv. pct) ranks 34th in Division III in goals against average.

SCOUTING THE POLAR BEARS
• No. 9/9 Bowdoin (6-1, 3-1 NESCAC) suffered its first loss of the season at No. 9/7 Amherst on Sunday, 12-8, in Amherst.
• Sophomore Casey Ryan tallied three goals and an assist, junior Michael Norton scored twice, and senior Jed Hoggard added a goal and an assist in the loss. Hoggard had two caused turnovers and four ground balls and Hobbs made seven saves for the Polar Bears, who were outscored 8-2 in the second half.
• Ryan (12-25-37) is third in Division III in assists per game and leads the team in points while senior Patrick Fitzgerald (26-7-33) tops the squad in goals. Lach (16-4-20) and sophomore Chris Berry (14-5-19) are also offensive threats. Senior Beau Burns has a .568 face-off percentage (75-132) and leads the team with 33 ground balls.
• Hoggard (11) and Lach (10) top the Polar Bears in ground balls. Hobbs (6-1, 8.96 GAA, .487 sv. pct) has started all seven games for Bowdoin, which ranks 10th in Division III in scoring defense (7.14 goals per game).

MATTHEWS RECEIVES WEEKLY HONOR
• After a career-high performance on Saturday, Matthews was named NEWMAC Offensive Athlete of the Week on Monday.
• Matthews produced four points (2g, 2a) in a win over No. 14 Middlebury on Tuesday and scored four of his career-high seven goals in the fourth quarter Saturday against MIT, potting the tying goal with two minutes remaining and the game-winner with 2.3 seconds to play.
• He has scored 22 goals this season and 16 in his last five games after scoring 13 goals as a rookie last year.

SUCCESS AT THE X
•  Reading won 12-of-16 face-offs and first-year Beck Trafton captured 11-of-16 in Babson's win over MIT.
• The 23 face-off wins as a team was the most since winning 25 draws in a win over Wheaton on May 4 of last year.
• The Beavers, who have a .500 face-off percentage this season, are 4-0 when winning at least 50 percent of the face-offs.

BABSON VS. THE NESCAC
• Wednesday's game is the third of four contests this season against schools from the NESCAC.
• The Beavers are 1-1 against teams from Division III's top conference, with a 9-7 loss to Williams back on March 1 in Babson Park and a 14-9 win over No. 14 Middlebury last Tuesday in Sparks, Md. They will also face No. 1/1 Tufts on April 15 in Medford.
• The Green and White are 3-3 against NESCAC opponents going back to last year and are 5-6 against the conference dating back to 2023.
• The NESCAC has four top-10 teams and five top-20 teams in this week's USILA poll.

BUSY BEAVERS
• Bower has produced a point in all eight games this spring to extend his points streak to 40 games.
• Smith has a point in 14 consecutive outings dating back to last year.
• Greene has nine of his 13 points (7g, 2a) in his last two outings, and Sisk has eight of his 10 points (4g, 4a) in his last two games.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS
• Bower has climbed into 10th place on Babson career scoring list with 144 points (60 goals, 84 assists), and he is third on the all-time assist list.
• Smith (42g, 69a, 111pts) has moved up to sixth place on the program's career assists list.
• Senior Brendan Maher is tied for sixth all-time with Drew Thomas '22 with 60 caused turnovers, and graduate student Sammy Kalishman has moved up to 13th on Babson's career list with 148 ground balls.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• Babson is 5-0 this season when scoring at least 14 goals in a game and 6-0 when reaching double digits in scoring this spring.
• The Beavers are 5-1 this season and 31-2 over the past three seasons when leading at halftime.
• The Green and White are 16-0 over the past three seasons when holding the opponents to eight goals or less.

UP NEXT
• Babson returns home to host Wheaton in a NEWMAC encounter on Saturday at 12 p.m. at MacDowell Field.