MEDFORD, Mass.—No. 11 Tufts University got a goal early in each half and held off a furious late rally to defeat No. 5 Babson College, 2-1, in non-conference men's soccer action on Monday night at Bello Field.
Babson, which had its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped, is now 6-1-1 on the year. Tufts, the defending Division III national champions, extended its home unbeaten streak to 20 games while improving to 5-1-2 overall.
Sophomore
Blake Miller (Odessa, Fla.) scored his first collegiate goal and senior
Alexander Yablonovskiy (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) registered an assist for the Beavers. Graduate student
Will Devall (Shoreham, N.Y.) finished with five saves in the loss.
Senior Henry Brown (Winter Park, Fla.) and junior William Cornog (Dallas, Texas) each provided a goal, while senior Xavier Canfin (Tarrytown, N.Y.) added an assist for the Jumbos. Graduate student Nikola Antic (Waltham, Mass.) stopped a season-high five shots in the win.
Devall made three early saves before Tufts took the lead in the 17th minute on a penalty kick after Brown was chopped down with his back to goal near the top of the box. Cornog got Devall leaning to his left and drilled his penalty into the lower left corner for his first goal of the season.
Antic punched away a 20-yard blast by Babson first-year
Adonai Samuel (Brookline, Mass.) in the 38th minute and Devall made his best stop of the game in the 44th minute racing off his line to get a piece of sophomore Gianluca Fallone's (Rochester, N.Y.) shot to keep the margin at one. The Jumbos doubled their advantage less than eight minutes into the second half though, as Canfin gained possession in the midfield following a restart late in their defensive end and played a ball into the right side of the box for Brown, who chipped his finish over the hard-charging Devall and inside the far post for his fourth marker of the year.
Devall denied a volley from senior Ethan Jett (Bellaire, Texas) just over a minute later to keep the Beavers in the game and Miller cut the deficit in half with his strike in the 74th minute. Yablonovskiy got a touch on the service into the box and the loose ball bounced toward the left post where Miller finished it off to make it 2-1.
The Green and White had a number of chances over the final 10 minutes but was unable to find an equalizer. Antic pushed away senior
Luca Tusche's (Montville, N.J.) curling strike from distance in the 84th minute and then made a terrific stop at the left post to deny junior
Christian Gardner's (Miami, Fla.) shot from inside the six-yard box in the 88th minute.
Sophomore
Adam Stetson (Granby, Mass.) also had his chance from close range off a cross from the right swallowed up by Antic with 22 seconds remaining.
Both teams finished with 11 shots and the Beavers held a slim 4-3 edge in corner kicks over 90 minutes.
Both sides return to action on Saturday as Babson travels to Clark at 1 p.m. while Tufts is on the road at Amherst at 2:30 p.m.
GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are now 9-12-3 all-time against Tufts and have dropped back-to-back games in the series.
• Prior to combining for three goals in Monday's match, the last six contests between Babson and the Jumbos had featured a total of just six goals.
• Each of the Beavers' last eight losses have come by a single goal.
• Babson has scored five of its eight second-half goals in the 74th minute or later this fall.
