SCHENECTADY, N.Y.—Graduate student Joey Allen (Philadelphia, Pa.) led all players with eight points on five goals and three assists and No. 20 USILA/No. 20 USA Lacrosse Magazine Babson College never trailed in a 16-12 win over No. 4/5 RIT in non-conference men's lacrosse action on Saturday afternoon at Frank Bailey Field. 

Babson is off to its first 3-0 start since 2021 and first in a full season since 2013, while RIT drops to 3-1 on the season. 

Junior Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) scored three goals and produced four points, graduate Patrick McAleavey (Trumbull, Conn.) tallied twice and senior Jack Feeks (Georgetown, Mass.) contributed a goal and two assists for the Beavers, who saw nine different players score. Senior Will Reading (Southlake, Texas) won 7-of-13 face-offs, classmate Sam Erjavac (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) scooped up three ground balls and had one caused turnover, and sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Almquist (Wakefield, Mass.) made a career-high 21 saves in the victory. 

Erich Acton (Uxbridge, Ontario), Ryan Bullock (Toronto, Ontario) and Evan Lyon (Wexford, Pa.) each scored twice to pace the Tigers' attack. Joe Holenstein (San Diego, Calif.) led all players with four ground balls and four caused turnovers, Jamie Hunt (Orangeville, Ontario) forced three turnovers and Alex Zborowski (Toronto, Ontario) made 13 saves in the loss. 

McAleavey and senior Braden Reilly (Reading, Pa.) scored in the opening four minutes and Allen notched a pair of goals in the span of 34 seconds to give the Green and White a 4-2 lead late in the first. Lyon and Bullock tallied back-to-back goals to pull RIT even just over a minute into the second but senior Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and Allen scored 22 seconds apart and Feeks capped a three-goal run that gave the Beavers a 7-4 edge with 10:03 to go in the stanza. 

RIT got back within two on a tally by Acton with 5:51 left before halftime before Babson answered with six of the next eight goals over a stretch of 17 minutes to create separation. Matthews and Allen each scored twice and McAleavey and junior Anthony Stillwell (Weston, Mass.) both added a goal to extend the cushion to 14-8 with 2:11 to go in the third. 

Junior Sam Sisk (Madison, Conn.) and sophomore Grayson Ambrosh (Danvers, Mass.) tacked on fourth-quarter markers as the Green and White matched its largest lead of the afternoon at 16-10 with 8:29 to play. Almquist made four saves over a two-minute stretch to keep the margin at six before RIT struck for a pair of goals over the final three minutes. 

The Beavers, who committed just 11 turnovers over the first three quarters, won 17-of-32 face-offs and converted 2-of-4 extra-man opportunities. The Tigers finished with a 53-45 edge in shots and a slim 36-33 advantage in ground balls. 

Babson is back in action next Saturday when it hosts Western New England at 1 p.m., while RIT takes on Geneseo on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES
•    The Beavers are now 1-2 all-time against RIT and Saturday's win is their first over a team ranked in the top five of both polls in program history. 
•    Babson is now 6-7 since the start of the 2024 campaign in games against nationally-ranked foes. 
•    The Green and White is 27-3 since 2004 when winning at least half the face-offs. 
•    The Beavers have now won their last 17 games when scoring at least 10 goals dating back to the start of last year.