NORTON, Mass.—Senior
Alexander Yablonovskiy (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) tied the game with a penalty kick 66 seconds into the second half as visiting Babson College played to a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Wheaton College in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's soccer action on Wednesday afternoon.
Babson, which is unbeaten in its last six matches, is now 9-2-5 overall and takes over first place in the conference standings at 4-0-3. Wheaton extended its unbeaten run to four games and is 8-2-6 overall and 3-1-3 in the NEWMAC. The draw was the first between the teams in 49 all-time meetings.
First-year goalkeeper
Braeden Condit (Denver, Colo.) made a season-high four saves to remain unbeaten in five starts for the Beavers.
Sophomore Paco Polo (Madrid, Spain) provided a goal while senior goalkeeper Nick Phinney (Gorham, Maine) made two saves for the Lyons.
Polo gave the hosts the lead just over three minutes into the match with his team-leading sixth goal. He drove towards goal from the left flank and played a ball towards the six-yard box that came right back to him off the foot of a Babson defender before picking out the upper corner from eight yards.
Condit came up with arguably his biggest save of the game in the 31st minute, coming 15 yards off his line and diving to his right to deny Polo before smothering the rebound after first-year Mason Fasoli (Weymouth, Mass.) forced a turnover and found him all alone streaking down the middle of the field. The Beavers pulled level in the 47th minute when senior
Titus Charles (San Tan Valley, Ariz.) was chopped down trying to settle sophomore
Tanner Michelson's (Newport, R.I.) service into the box setting up Yablonovskiy's penalty kick.
Phinney made his best save of the second half less than a minute after Babson's equalizer, snaring sophomore
Will Boecher's (Wellesley, Mass.) blast from the top of the box. Condit swallowed up senior Declan Rhatigan's (Holderness, N.H.) bouncing free kick in the 48th minute and punched away his header in the 70th minute before senior
Huey Miller (Gill, Mass.) eventually cleared the loose ball out of danger.
The Beavers finished with a 16-10 advantage in shots, which includes a 13-5 margin in the second, while the Lyons held the edge in shots on goal (5-3) and corner kicks (5-4).
Both teams conclude the regular season on Saturday at 1 p.m. as Babson hosts Coast Guard while Wheaton travels to Springfield.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 27-21-1 all-time against Wheaton and are unbeaten in their last six games on Keefe Field (5-0-1).
• Babson is 14-1-10 on the road against NEWMAC foes since 2021.
• The Green and White is now 8-0-5 on the year when conceding one goal or fewer.
• With his second-half penalty kick, Yablonovskiy became just the 11th player in Babson history with 25 career goals.
