No. 20/16 Men's Lacrosse at Western New England
Saturday, March 8 | 1:00 p.m.
Golden Bear Stadium | Springfield, Mass.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson is 14-14 all-time against Western New England in a series that dates back to 1987, many of which came when the two programs were part of the Pilgrim Lacrosse League.
• Back-to-back wins by the Beavers the past two years were the first meetings between the two schools since 2007.
• The win by the Green and White at Western New England in 2023 snapped an eight-game losing streak in Springfield from 2002-207.

LAST MEETING
• Jared Rainville M'24 tallied five goals and an assist and sophomore Seamus Rooney and junior Bennett Smith added four points apiece as Babson knocked off WNE, 15-11, on March 9, 2024, at MacDowell Field.
• Graduate student Jacob Tauss notched two goals and an assist while classmates Topher Bower and Connor Karsh '24 and sophomores Camden Matthews and Rowan Mondello chipped in with one goal each for the Beavers. Grey Sunderland '24 won 10-of-17 face-offs, grad student Brendan Maher caused three turnovers and senior Alex Fascilla recorded a career-high 14 stops in the Beaver goal.
• Senior Jack Houlden led the visitors with five goals and an assist and Dylan Hanley M'24 contributed a game-high five assists while graduate student James Wrynn and senior Zachary Mein scored two goals apiece. Junior Chris Catuosco won 13-of-23 faceoffs, sophomore David Noel caused eight turnovers, and Carter Randall M'24 finished with six saves in goal.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson, ranked 14th by USA Lacrosse Magazine and 20th in Division III by USILA, is coming off an 18-8 victory over Nichols Tuesday evening at MacDowell Field.
• Smith and Rooney combined for five goals and six assists to lead 15 players who put at least one point on the scoresheet for the Beavers, who outscored Nichols 8-0 in the third quarter. Matthews and sophomore Anthony Stillwell scored twice each, junior Will Reading won a career-high 18 face-offs, sophomore Ryan St. Onge had a team-high four caused turnovers, and first-year Grayson Ambrosh forced three turnovers.
• Smith (8-5-13) and Rooney (7-5-12) are the team scoring leaders, with strong support from Matthews (8-0-8) and Stillwell (8-0-8) while Bower (1-6-7) tops the team in assists. Reading has a .529 face-off percentage (37-70), graduate student Tripp Clark has 10 caused turnovers and 24 ground balls while Ambrosh (5), sophomore Bruno Batty (5), St. Onge (4) and senior Gavin Bailey (4) have combined for 18 forced turnovers.
• Fascilla (3-1, 7.72 GAA, .567 sv. pct) ranks 33rd in Division III in goals against average.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
• Western New England (1-3) has dropped its last two games at MIT (15-7) last Friday and home against Bowdoin (15-2) on Sunday after going to overtime in its first two outings, a 12-11 2OT setback to No. 10 St. Lawrence and a 12-11 win at Keene State.
• Senior goalie Jonathon Salsbury matched his career high with 19 saves in the setback to Bowdoin. Senior Griffin LaRochelle and Houlden tacked on a pair of late goals, Catuosco won 7-of-15 face-offs, senior Ryan Quinlan picked up four ground balls and junior Jack Gara forced three turnovers for the Golden Bears.
• Junior Josh Gagnon (7-2-9) and LaRochelle (7-1-8) lead the team in scoring, and Houlden (5-2-7) and first-year Logan Jenkins (4-2-6) are also offensive threats and Mein (2-3-5) leads the squad in assists. Catuosco has a .582 face-off percentage (46-79) with 26 ground balls, and Gara and graduate student Michael Knapp have five caused turnovers each.
• First-year Braden Civiello (0-2, 11.89 GAA, .306 sv. pct) and Salsbury (1-1, 13.80 GAA, .533 sv. pct) have split time on goal for the Golden Bears.

SPREADING THE OFFENSE
• Smith (8), Matthews (8), Stillwell (8) and Rooney (7) have shared primary goal scoring duties for the balanced Babson offense, which has outscored its opponents 52-31 this spring.
• With seniors Colt Bordonaro and Emmett Martin, Ambrosh, Bailey, Reading, and junior Braden Reilly all scoring their first goals of the season against Nichols, the Beavers have now gotten goals from 20 different players this spring.

DEFENDING THE DAM
• The Beavers held Nichols to just 16 clears on 31 attempts while forcing the Bison into 35 turnovers in Tuesday's victory.
• Babson is ranked 27th in Division III this season in opponent clear percentage (.688).

STREAKING BEAVERS
• Bower extended his points streak to 36 games with two assists in each of the last three games.
• Smith produced a career-high six points (2g, 4a) against Nichols and has scored in each of his last six games and has a point in 10 consecutive outings dating back to last year. 
•  Rooney and Stillwell have both scored in all four games this season for the Green and White, while Chapman has a goal in three straight contests.

CLIMBING THE CHARTS
• With his two goals against Nichols, Bower moved into fourth place on Babson's career assist list with 80 helpers and 13th on the all-time scoring list with 138 points, one shy of Spencer Low '16 for 12th place.
• Smith matched his career high with four assists against Nichols and moved into seventh in Babson history with 65 assists, needing just one helper to tie Brad Otis '00 for sixth place.
• Maher is currently seventh all-time with 58 caused turnovers and graduate student Sammy Kalishman ranks 17th on Babson's career list with 136 ground balls.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers have won 15 in a row going back to the start of the 2023 campaign when allowing eight goals or fewer.
• The Green and White are 17-3 since last year when forcing at least eight turnovers. 
• The Beavers are 17-1 going back to last season when winning at least half the face-offs. 
• Babson is 28-2 over the last three seasons when leading at halftime.

UP NEXT
• Babson returns to Springfield next Saturday, March 15, to begin defense of its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship against the Springfield Pride at 3 p.m.