BABSON PARK, Mass.— No. 4 Babson College extended its season-opening unbeaten streak to six games after registering a 1-0 non-conference victory over Bates College in non-conference men's soccer action Saturday afternoon at Hartwell-Rogers Field.
With the victory, the Beavers improve to 5-0-1 on the season while the Bobcats had their record leveled at 2-2-1.
Senior
Alexander Yablonovskiy (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) scored the only goal of the game on a penalty kick late in the first half. Graduate student
Will Devall (Shoreham, N.Y.) was not forced to make any saves while recording his second straight clean sheet. Sophomore back
Adam Stetson (Granby, Mass.) registered a team save for Babson to keep Bates off the scoreboard.
First-year Isaac Kolaczkowski (Beavercreek, Ohio) made two saves in the Bates goal in the setback.
Babson had a 6-1 advantage in shots in the opening half, but Kolaczkowski made both of his saves to keep the Beavers at bay. Bates had the best scoring opportunity in the first 40 minutes when first-year Finn Coburn (Scarborough, Maine) got loose in the box and moved past Devall on the right, but his shot was cleared off the line by Stetson.
With time winding down in the first half, Yablonovskiy was taken down in the six-yard box and awarded a penalty kick, which he ripped into the left side of the goal for a 1-0 Babson lead.
Babson had two outstanding opportunities to extend the lead in the second half. The first came in the 56th minute when graduate student
Tyler Shin (Chantilly, Va.) slid a pass from the right side across the crease, but graduate student
Drew Stephans' (Newton, Mass.) shot bounced off the inside of the left goal post.
The second chance came in the 86th minute near the right corner when senior
McKenzy Pierre (West Orange, N.J.) found classmate
Luca Tusche (Montville, N.J.) free on the edge of the box, but Tusche's long shot hit the inside of the far post, the same one that denied Stephans earlier in the half, and bounced right back to Kolaczkowski.
Babson's back line of senior
Will Lloyd (Lexington, Mass.), Stetson, junior
Henry Bacon (Colchester, Vt.) and senior
Huey Miller (Gill, Mass.) conceded just one shot on goal and four shots overall. The Beavers finished with a 10-4 advantage in shots, while Bates had a 4-3 margin in corner kicks, all seven coming in the second half.
Babson opens New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) play next Saturday against Springfield at 1 p.m. at Hartwell-Rogers Field. Bates also plays again next Saturday at No. 1 Wesleyan at 2 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• Saturday's game was the first meeting between the two programs since 1991, and Babson is now 11-3-2 all-time against Bates in a series that goes back to 1964.
• The Beavers went 12-0-2 against the Bobcats while not conceding a single goal in 12 consecutive seasons from 1980-91.
• Yablonovskiy's goal was his second of the season, both game-winners, coming on the heels of a career-high 10 goals a year ago.
• Babson has not allowed a goal in its last 198 minutes while recording back-to-back shutouts.
