NORTON, Mass.— Junior Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) and sophomore Chase Wightman (Little Compton, R.I.) combined for nine points to lead a group of 15 players who registered points, and grad student Beau Burns (Washington, D.C.) won 12-of-13 face-offs and picked up nine ground balls to pace No. 8/6 Babson College past Wheaton College, 19-8, in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) men's lacrosse opener for both schools Saturday afternoon at Nordin Field.

Babson, ranked eighth in Division III by the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and sixth by USA Lacrosse Magazine, improved to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the NEWMAC for its best start to a season since 1979. Wheaton lost for the second time in three outings to dip to 6-2 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

Matthews finished with three goals and two assists while Wightman tallied two goals and two helpers for the Beavers. Senior Jackson Simon (Bellevue, Wash.) scored his first three goals of the season, junior Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) produced a pair of goals and senior Braden Reilly (Reading, Mass) chipped in with a goal and two assists. Junior Rowan Mondello (Wakefield, Mass.) and first-year Cash McCoy (Englewood, Colo.) got into the act with their first goals of the season, and sophomore Andrew Almquist (Wakefield, Mass.) made 14 saves in goal in the win.

Senior Charlie Goodrich (Fairfield, Conn.) led the Lyons with three goals and an assist, classmate Emmett Edwards (Sunderland, Vt.) scored three goals, and junior Evan Paturzo (Bellingham, Mass.) finished with two goals and an assist. Junior Chris Bodnarek (Andover, Mass.) won 10-of-18 face-offs, first-year Ryan Snodgrass (Cumberland, R.I.) grabbed a team-high four ground balls, and junior Evan Borchert (Littleton, Colo.) had a busy day in goal and finished with 10 saves.

It was a close game in the first quarter with Babson leading 4-2 after the first 15 minutes. After Rooney and Goodrich traded goals in the first six minutes, Rooney fired in a man-up goal and junior Bruno Batty (Jamaica Plain, Mass.) followed with his second goal of the season for Babson before Edwards and junior Anthony Stillwell (Weston, Mass.) exchanged goals to round out the frame.

Reilly extended the Babson lead to three goals four minutes into the second quarter, a lead that lasted six minutes until Paturzo cut the margin with 5-3 with 4:56 remaining in the half. The Beavers got a little breathing room when junior Luke Wang (Simsbury, Conn.) and Matthews tacked on goals in the final 71 seconds to give the Green and White a 7-3 advantage at the intermission.

Babson put the game out of reach by outscoring the hosts 8-1 in the third quarter. Grad student Patrick McAleavey (Trumbull, Conn.) scored the first goal of the frame and Matthews went back-to-back as the lead ballooned to 10-3. Matthews set up Simon for a goal before Goodrich scored for Wheaton, and the Beavers got goals from senior Luke D'Orsi (Jamestown, R.I.), first-year Nick Marsh (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), Wightman and Simon to close out the quarter with a 15-4 advantage.

The teams went back and forth in the fourth quarter with Mondello, Wightman, Simon and McCoy scoring for the Beavers to clinch the victory.

Despite the lopsided win, Babson has just a 29-22 advantage in shots on goal, but had a decisive 39-14 margin in ground balls while winning 19 of 30 face-offs.

Babson will be right back in action on Sunday, hosting No. 18/16 Middlebury at 1 p.m. on MacDowell Field. Wheaton will host Eastern Connecticut on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers have won the last 16 contests against Wheaton and own a 33-9 all-time margin against Wheaton in a series that dates back to 1992. 
• Babson's six-game winning streak to open the season is the best since the 1979 team started 8-0 on the way to the program's first and only NCAA Tournament berth in more than 50 years until 2021.
• The Green and White have won 19 of the last 21 NEWMAC regular season games going back to 2024.
• Burns has won 51 of his last 60 face-offs (85.0 percent) with 37 ground balls over the past three games.