BABSON PARK, Mass.—Graduate student
Joey Allen (Philadelphia, Pa.) scored three times, senior
Bennett Smith (Lake Oswego, Ore.) led all players with four points and junior
Ryan St. Onge (Avon, Conn.) finished with four caused turnovers as top-seeded Babson College overwhelmed the fifth-seeded Coast Guard Academy, 19-4, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal on Thursday night at MacDowell Field.
No. 4 USILA/No. 8 USA Lacrosse Babson, which has won three consecutive games, improves to 15-2 on the year while advancing to the NEWMAC Tournament final for the fourth year in a row and fifth time in the last six seasons. Coast Guard sees its season come to a close at 5-10.
Smith had a goal and three assists, juniors
Camden Matthews (Westford, Mass.) and
Seamus Rooney (Bay Shore, N.Y.) both finished with two goals and one assist, and classmate
Rowan Mondello (Wakefield, Mass.) scored twice for the Beavers, who had eight different players finish with at least two points. Sophomore
Beck Trafton (Miami Beach, Fla.) wont 7-of-12 face-offs, junior
Bruno Batty (Jamaica Plain, Mass.) led all players with six ground balls and sophomore
Andrew Almquist (Wakefield, Mass.) had to make just four saves to extend his single-season wins record to 15.
Sophomore Ezekiel Christian (Stonington, Conn.) had two goals and one assist, while senior Patrick Smith (Leesburg, Va.) added a goal and an assist for the Bears, who committed a season-high 33 turnovers in the loss. Junior Mason Tucker (Alpharetta, Ga.) went 8-of-17 on face-offs, classmate Jamison Wildt (Arnold, Ga.) finished with five ground balls and two caused turnovers, and senior goalkeeper Dustin Miller (Tyler, Texas) made 12 saves in the final game of his career.
The Green and White got goals from graduate student
Patrick McAleavey (Trumbull, Conn.) and Mondello to take a 2-1 lead late in the first quarter and then forced Coast Guard into seven turnovers in the span of eight possessions to begin the second to build a seven-goal halftime lead. Rooney made it 3-1 at the 12:29 mark, senior
Jack Feeks (Georgetown, Mass.) followed with his first goal of the night two and a half minutes later and Allen extended the lead to 5-1 with 7:26 to play in the period.
Sophomore
Grayson Ambrosh (Danvers, Mass.) scored in transition less than 90 seconds later and Allen and Rooney both tallied again over the final five minutes of the half to make it 8-1. Allen completed his hat trick with 13:20 to go in the third quarter, sophomore
Mark Brown (San Diego, Calif.) scored 17 seconds later and Mondello notched his second goal of the night with 12:25 remaining in the stanza to cap a 10-goal run that stretched the cushion to 11-1.
Christian snapped a scoring drought of more than 28 minutes to cut the Bears' deficit to 11-2 just over a minute later, but Matthews answered with consecutive tallies and Smith scored his first of the game for a 14-2 lead with 3:39 to play in the third. Smith opened the fourth quarter with a goal for Coast Guard only see to the Green and White answer with four tallies in less than four minutes, the last coming from first-year
Cash McCoy (Englewood, Colo.) to make it 18-3 with 7:44 left.
The Beavers finished with the edge in shots (58-24) and ground balls (45-31) while converting 23-of-24 clears.
Babson will host third-seeded MIT in Saturday's NEWMAC Tournament final at 1 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 9-4 all-time against Coast Guard, which includes a 3-0 mark in the conference playoffs.
• Babson has won eight consecutive NEWMAC Tournament games at home going back to 2016.
• The four goals allowed are the fewest in NEWMAC Tournament history by the Beavers breaking the previous mark of five in a 2015 semifinal win over Wheaton.
• The Green and White has not given up a man-up goal in its last seven games while killing off 16 straight penalties.
