SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— Sophomore Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) produced a career-high eight points on four goals and four assists as No. 20/16 Babson College rallied from a first-quarter deficit to defeat Western New England University, 16-8, in a non-conference men's lacrosse contest Saturday afternoon at Golden Bears Stadium.

Babson, ranked 20th by the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association and 16th by USA Lacrosse Magazine, improves to 4-1 overall while WNE dropped its third straight game to fall to 1-4 on the season.

Rooney led a balanced Babson offense that saw 11 different players score at least one goal. Sophomore Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) tallied two goals and an assist, classmate Rowan Mondello (Wakefield, Mass.) added a goal and two assists, and fellow sophomore Cooper Chapman (Hingham, Mass.) also notched a pair of goals while junior Braden Reilly (Reading, Mass.) and sophomores Anthony Stillwell (Weston, Mass.) contributed a goal and an assist each. Graduate student Tripp Clark (Byfield, Mass.) caused three turnovers and picked up seven ground balls, junior Will Reading (Southlake, Texas) won 13 of 26 face-offs and matched Clark with a team-high seven ground balls, and senior Alex Fascilla (Huntington, N.Y.) made 13 saves in goal in the win.

First-year Logan Jenkins (Preston, Conn.) had a team-high four points (1g, 3a) for the Golden Bears while senior Jack Houlden (Peabody, Mass.) finished with three goals and classmate Nicholas Campagnone (Columbia, Conn.) scored twice. Junior Chris Catuosco (Commack, N.Y.) won 12 of 23 faceoffs and tied with junior Kai McDonald (Dracut, Mass.) for team highs of four ground balls each, and senior Jonathon Salsbury (Bel Air, Md.) made 17 saves in goal in the setback.

After graduate student Justin Greene (Norwell, Mass.) opened the scoring for the visitors four minutes into the game, the upset-minded Golden Bears ran off three consecutive goals to close out the opening period. Houlden notched the first two before Campagnone made it 3-1 with 16 seconds left in the quarter.

Rooney and Jenkins traded goals for the teams just 11 seconds apart early in the second quarter before Babson put in three in a row to take its first lead at 5-4 with 5:29 remaining. Stillwell cut the deficit to 4-3 and Rooney set up Chapman for back-to-back goals to put the Beavers in front. Junior Max Rudgers (Brunswick, Maine) tied things up at 5-5 less than a minute later but Rooney answered less than a minute after that to send the teams into the break with the Green and White up, 6-5.

The Beavers pulled away with five of the seven goals of the third quarter. Rooney, Mondello and senior Riley Shaw (Duluth, Ga.) connected to extend the Babson lead to 9-5 before the teams alternated goals the rest of the frame, Houlden and Campagnone scoring for WNE and senior Colt Bordonaro (Portland, Ore.) and Matthews answering for the visitors.

Babson put the game away in the final 15 minutes, outscoring the Golden Bears 5-1. Rooney and first-year Grayson Ambrosh (Danvers, Mass.) pushed the lead to 13-7 and Matthews, Reilly and sophomore Sam Sisk (Madison, Conn.) rounded out the scoring.

The Beavers had a 51-37 advantage in shots and won the ground ball battle by a 32-30 count. Face-offs were evenly split at 14 apiece.

Babson returns to Springfield next Saturday to begin defense of its New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) championship against the Springfield Pride at 3 p.m. Western New England travels to Chester, Pa., on Wednesday to face Widener at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 15-14 all-time against Western New England in a series that dates back to 1987, including three straight wins over the past three seasons in the first meetings between the two sided since 2007.
• The Green and White have won 16 in a row when allowing eight goals or fewer, going back to the start of the 2023 campaign.
• The Beavers are 18-1 going back to last season when winning at least 50 percent of the face-offs. 
• Graduate student Topher Bower (Chicago, Ill.) had two assists for the third straight game to extend his point streak to 37 games.