Box Score Babson Park, Mass. - April 30, 2015 - Senior Bryce Serriello (Cape Cod, Mass.) scored four of his career-high seven goals in the span of 6:27 to open the third quarter as second-seeded Springfield College rallied for a 13-7 win over top-seeded Babson College in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Lacrosse Tournament championship game on Saturday afternoon at MacDowell Field.
With its seventh straight win, Springfield (11-7) claimed its eighth-consecutive conference title and earned the NEWMAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Babson concludes its season at 11-7.
In a rematch of a regular-season meeting in which Babson prevailed 12-10 and snapped the Pride's 56 league-game winning streak, senior Dylan Sheehan (Massapequa, N.Y.) had two goals and one assist, while junior Tony LaGuerre (Shrub Oak, N.Y.) led all players with three assists for the Pride. Senior Matt Dalton (Somers, N.Y.) chipped in with two assists and classmate Mark Gonzalez (Tolland, Conn.) won 17-of-23 face-offs and snagged a game-high seven ground balls.
Junior Spencer Low (Natick, Mass.) scored three times to lead the Beavers, while senior Kyle Barsalou (Longmeadow, Mass.) contributed a goal and an assist. Sophomore Zach Cattaruzza (Guilford, Conn.) finished with five ground balls and three caused turnovers, and his brother, senior Christian Cattaruzza (Guilford, Conn.) chipped in with four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Trailing 6-4 at halftime, Serriello put Springfield on his back to open the second half. He scored twice over the first 2:54 to tie the game, and then followed it up with a pair of goals just 22 seconds apart to put the Pride in front 8-6 with 8:33 to go in the third quarter. Junior Kevin Dean (Westhampton, N.Y.) scored 63 seconds later to make it a three-goal game, and senior Kevin Sainte (Lexington, Mass.) and sophomore Scott Rogers (Acton, Mass.) each scored late in the stanza to make it 11-6 going to the fourth.
Babson junior Brendan Coan (Towson, Md.) finally stopped the Springfield run with his only goal of the game at 13:16 of the fourth to get within 11-7. The Green and White was held to just seven shots over the final 15 minutes though, and each of its last two attempts on cage were stopped by sophomore goalkeeper
Chris Santaniello (West Springfield, Mass.). Serriello and Sheehan both scored over the final eight minutes for the Pride, which scored nine of the second half's 10 goals.
After falling behind 2-1 over the first six minutes of the first quarter, the Beavers ripped off three straight goals to build a 4-2 lead. Low tied it with a little more than five minutes to play, and then followed junior Scott Doten's (Western Springs, Ill.) tally with his third marker of the quarter just 18 seconds later for a 4-2 lead. Sheehan scored with 0.8 seconds left in the stanza to get Springfield back within one.
Babson first-year Axel Brown (Little Compton, R.I.) pushed the lead back to 5-3 early in the second before Serriello converted a feed from Laguerre for a man-up goal at the 5:47 mark to cut the Pride deficit back to one. Barsalou pushed the Beavers' lead back to 6-4 at the break with a transition tally just 1:43 from halftime.
Santaniello finished with 12 saves for Springfield, while Babson first-year goalkeeper Jordan Shapiro (Pleasantville, N.Y.) stopped seven shots on the day.
The Beavers held a slim 37-36 edge in shots, while the Pride finished with a 41-34 advantage in ground balls and went 22-of-24 on clear chances.
Springfield will find out who it will play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament when the Division III field is announced at 9 p.m. on Sunday night.
