Panthers' two-game win streak stopped

            BABSON PARK, Mass. – Senior Armand Wilson (Fairfield, Conn.) scored a game-high five goals Thursday afternoon to lead the Babson College Beavers to a 10-7 victory over visiting Plymouth State University in a non-conference men's lacrosse contest at Babson's MacDowell Field.

            Joining Wilson with five points on the day was sophomore Jamie Schmidt (Shelburne, Vt.), who amassed three goals and two assists to go with four groundballs. Freshman Ryan Dawidjan (Worcester, Mass.) paced the Beavers' stellar defensive effort with four caused turnovers and a game-high nine groundballs, and senior Ryan Kucinski (Cohassett, Mass.) also caused four turnovers while picking up five groundballs. Sophomore Jay Whalen (Westwood, Mass.) went the distance in net for the hosts, finishing with 10 saves as the Beavers evened their season record at 4-4.

            Sophomore Ty Long (Dover, N.H.) and senior Drew Kirwin (Bow, N.H.) each scored two goals for Plymouth State, while seniors Justin Dube (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) and Jesse Holland (Winchester, Mass.) collected seven groundballs apiece. Senior Kevin Hayes (Beverly, Mass.) finished with 13 saves in net for the Panthers, who fell to 3-2 overall.

            Senior Thomas Cykana (Minnetonka, Minn.) gave the Beavers a 1-0 lead with 5:14 left in the opening quarter, but Plymouth State tied it when Long netted an unassisted score at 1:56. Wilson then put the hosts back in front when he converted a feed from Schmidt with 26 seconds left in the period.

            Babson scored three straight goals to start the second quarter, with Schmidt providing the first two. His first of the day came after stripping Hayes near midfield and ripping a shot past a defender for a man-up goal at 14:12, and his second came off a pass from Kucinski at 11:54. Sophomore Alex Patinkin (Providence, R.I.) later added a goal off a Cam Caruso (St. Charles, Ill.) feed to make it 5-1 in favor of the Beavers with 8:37 left in the half.

            Plymouth State battled back later in the second quarter, as freshman Chris Annunciata (Waltham, Mass.) converted a pass from senior Andrew Eriksen (Beverly, Mass.) to make it 5-2 at 4:46. The Panthers then opened the third quarter with back-to-back unassisted scores – a goal by Holland at 12:42 and another by Kirwin at 10:47 – to cut Babson's lead to just one at 5-4.

            The Beavers finally halted the 3-0 Plymouth State run when Wilson scored his second of the game off a Patinkin pass with 8:53 left in the third quarter. However, the Panthers struck again just over three minutes later, as Annunciata took a length-of-the-field pass from Dube and fed freshman Zach Frank (Wakefield, Mass.) for a man-down goal at 5:40. That trimmed the visitors' deficit back to one at 6-5 heading into the final quarter of play.

            Babson pulled away in the fourth, beginning when Wilson caused a turnover deep in the Plymouth State zone and then scored off a pass from Dawidjan to make it 7-5 at 14:09. Schmidt later tacked on his third of the game off Patinkin's second assist for an 8-5 cushion at 10:14, and Wilson tallied two straight goals – his fourth and fifth of the day at 5:44 and 1:36, respectively – to make it a 10-5 game. The Panthers would get two late scores from Long and Kirwin in the final minute, but it would not be enough to prevent the 10-7 Babson victory.

            PSU returns to action next Wednesday, Mar. 30, with a visit to Clark University for a 6:00 p.m. match-up. 

 (Courtesy of Babson Sports Information) 

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