BABSON PARK, Mass.—Senior
Alexander Yablonovskiy (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) and sophomore
Connor Hanrahan (Naperville, Ill.) both scored over the final 10 minutes to help Babson College defeat visiting Emerson College, 2-0, in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's soccer action on Wednesday night at MacDowell Field.
Babson, which is unbeaten in four consecutive matches, improves to 8-2-4 overall and 3-0-2 in conference play. Emerson is now winless in its last four games and slipped to 7-5-4 overall and 0-3-3 in the NEWMAC.
Yablonovskiy, senior
Will Lloyd (Lexington, Mass.) and first-year
Adonai Samuel (Brookline, Mass.) each provided an assist for the Beavers. First-year goalkeeper
Braeden Condit (Denver, Colo.) finished with two saves to keep his second consecutive clean sheet in the victory.
Sophomore Asa Roberts (Guilford, Conn.) turned away five shots in defeat for the Lions.
Held at bay for the first 81 minutes by a stingy Emerson defense, the Green and White broke through with two goals in the span of 2:45. Yablonovskiy took a pass from Samuel and drilled a shot from the top of the box inside the left post for his fourth marker of the year and a 1-0 lead in the 82nd minute.
Condit was well positioned to turn away a shot from distance by Lions' junior John Liley's (Scottsdale, Ariz.) at the 83:13 mark and the Beavers put the game away on Hanrahan's fourth goal of the season 56 seconds later. Yablonovskiy received a pass from Lloyd and one-touched the ball past the Emerson backline for Hanrahan, who blasted a shot past Roberts and inside the left post.
Condit made a sprawling save going to his right to deny sophomore Nick Mirogiannis' (Reading, Mass.) bid to open the scoring from just outside 10 yards in the 15th minute before Babson seized control of the game. Roberts snared a header by Yablonovskiy following a corner kick in the 48th minute and Lloyd's 20-yard rocket hit the outside of the right post in the 52nd minute.
Roberts also was forced to make a diving save on Yablonovskiy's bicycle kick from inside 15 yards following another corner kick in the 59th minute.
The Beavers finished with a 21-8 edge in shots and attempted six of the seven corner kicks in the match.
Babson returns to action on Saturday when it travels to WPI at 1 p.m., while Emerson hosts the same Engineers next Wednesday at 3 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 13-1 all-time against Emerson and are unbeaten in eight straight NEWMAC matches after the Lions snapped their 36-game conference unbeaten streak in October of last season.
• Babson has now scored eight goals of its 13 second half goals this season in the 74th minute or later.
• Yablonovskiy moved into a tie for 13th place on the program's all-time list with his 23rd career goal in Wednesday's win and is also tied for 14th in school history with 58 career points.
• The Beavers, who were playing their first nighttime home game since September 5, 2023, improved to 7-1-1 going back to 2018 on the turf at MacDowell Field.
