BABSON PARK, Mass.— Senior Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.), junior Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) and graduate student Joey Allen (Philadelphia, Pa.) tallied four points apiece and No. 8/6 Babson College finished the game with five unanswered goals over the final 13 minutes to pull out a 14-9 victory over No. 18/16 Middlebury College in a non-conference men's lacrosse battle of ranked teams Sunday afternoon at MacDowell Field.

Babson, ranked eighth in Division III by the US Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and sixth by USA Lacrosse Magazine, improved to 7-0 overall for its best start to a season since 1979. Middlebury had a three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 3-2 on the season.

Smith finished with three goals and an assist, Rooney produced two goals and two assists and Allen provided four assists for the Beavers. Junior Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) notched three goals, grad student Patrick McAleavey (Trumbull, Conn.) scored twice, and senior Braden Reilly (Reading, Mass.) contributed a goal and two assists in the win. Grad student Beau Burns (Washington, D.C.) won 17-of-26 face-offs and picked up a game-high 13 ground balls, junior Bruno Batty (Jamaica Plain, Mass.) caused three turnovers and scooped up three GBs, and sophomore Andrew Almquist (Wakefield, Mass.) made an impressive 11 saves in goal for the Green and White.

First-year Gavin Romweber (Mendham, N.J.) had two goals and two assists for the Panthers and sophomore Nick Marvin (San Diego, Calif.) scored a team-high three goals. Senior Logan White (Parker, Colo.) was good for a goal and two assists, junior Noah Filippelli (Westhampton Beach, N.Y.) won 7-of-18 face-offs, classmate Justin DeLucia (South Salem, N.Y.) caused two turnovers and grabbed four ground balls, and senior Hayden Kern (Westlake Hills, Texas) and first-year Will Leahy (Woodberry Forest, Va.) scooped up five ground balls each. Kern was outstanding in the Panther goal, finishing with 15 saves.

Middlebury had the upper hand in the first half, starting with a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes as White scored first and Marvin added two in a row. Rooney and McAleavey scored in a three-minute stretch to cut the margin to one goal but Romweber answered to give the Panthers a 4-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, and senior Misha Trupo (Austin, Texas) and Marvin added second quarter scores to give the visitors a 6-2 lead with 3:29 to go in the half.

Smith stopped the bleeding with a goal for Babson to close out the half, and the Beavers scored the first three goals of the third quarter, including two from Matthews and one from senior Jack Feeks (Georgetown, Mass.) to deadlock the score at 6-6 midway through the third.

The Panthers regained the lead with goals by juniors Will Ford (Denver, Colo.) and Ged Gengras (Hartford, Conn.) but the Beavers answered with goals by Rooney with 2:46 to go in the third and a man-up goal by Reilly with 23 seconds on the clock. Smith gave the Green and White their first lead at 9-8 on a goal with one second remaining in the quarter.

Romweber scored a tying goal for Middlebury two minutes into the fourth quarter but it was the Beavers the rest of the way. McAleavey and Smith (man-up) put Babson up 11-9, junior Andrew Berardi (Orleans, Mass.) and Matthews extended the margin to four goals with eight minutes to go, and sophomore Grayson Ambrosh (Danvers, Mass.) rounded out the scoring with 4:28 remaining.

The Beavers finished with a 46-38 advantage in shots, including 32-14 in the second half. The hosts had a 17-9 margin in face-offs and scored on three out of four man-up situations while holding Middlebury to just one goal on five man-up chances.

Babson will host defending New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season champion and tournament runner-up Springfield next Saturday at 1 p.m. at MacDowell Field. Middlebury will host Bates in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play on Saturday at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• After dropping the first four career games against the Panthers, Babson has won the last three years and is now 3-4 all-time against Middlebury in a series that dates back to 1981.
• The Green and White are 3-0 this season against nationally-ranked teams, 5-3 going back to last season and 8-7 since 2024.
• Babson has won its first two of four games against teams from the NESCAC after going 1-4 against the conference last year.
• Babson's seven-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.
• Burns has won 68 of his last 86 face-offs (79.1 percent) with 50 ground balls over the past four games.