WORCESTER, Mass.— Graduate student keeper
Will Devall (Shoreham, N.Y.) made three saves as No. 6 Babson College battled to a 0-0 draw against Clark University in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's soccer match-up Saturday afternoon at Granger Field.
With the outcome, the Beavers move to 6-1-2 on the season and 1-0-1 in NEWMAC games, while the Cougars have a win and a tie in their last two games against the top two teams in the NEWMAC preseason poll and are now 2-4-3 overall and 1-1-1 in the league.
Senior Jaime Pedraza (Bayamon, Puerto Rico) played a big role in the draw for Clark, making a season-high 10 saves in goal for his second straight clean sheet. He had seven saves in a 1-0 shutout victory over preseason favorite Wheaton last Saturday.
Babson had an 8-3 advantage in shots in the opening 45 minutes with each team putting three shots on target. Pedraza made a point-blank range save on senior
Alexander Yablonovskiy (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) in the 32nd minute and added a nice stop on a header by junior
Christian Haikal (North Easton, Mass.) in the 40th minute on a corner kick feed by classmate
Christian Gardner (Miami, Fla.).
Devall's best save in the first half came in the 43rd minute as he went to his left to stop a long shot by first-year Jake DiOrio (Belmont, Mass.).
The Beavers produced 14 shots in the second half, including seven on goal, while holding Clark to six shots, none on target. Yablonovskiy had a good scoring opportunity five minutes into the second half with a clean shot from 10 yards out off a feed from graduate student
Drew Stephans (Newton, Mass.), but Pedraza punched it over top of the net.
Pedraza also made a nice diving save to his right on a nice shot from the right side by sophomore
Will Boecher (Wellesley, Mass.) in the 70th minute.
The Green and White made a last-gasp effort to try to score, taking four corner kicks and seven shots in the final six minutes. Boecher's header off a corner kick was corralled by Pedraza in the 85th minute, and the Clark keeper made another diving save off a good shot from senior
Will Lloyd (Lexington, Mass.) from 15 yards out in the 87th minute. Pedraza made his final save in the final minute on a header by sophomore
Blake Miller (Odessa, Fla.) off a corner kick.
Babson finished with a 22-9 advantage in shots, including 10-3 in attempts on target, and had 7-2 margin in corner kicks.
The Beavers return home to host Amherst on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Hartwell-Rogers Field. The Cougars play a non-conference make-up game at Nichols on Thursday at 4 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• Babson is 41-18-8 against Clark in a series that dates back to 1959 and is unbeaten in their last eight matches (5-0-3) versus the Cougars.
• In addition to its two draws this season, all six Babson wins and its only loss this season were decided by just one goal.
• The Beavers are 12-2-4 against conference opponents in the regular season since 2024 and 24-2-7 dating back to 2022.
