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Nov 8, 2009

Top-Seeded Babson Denies Second-Seeded Wheaton, 2-1, To Claim Second Straight NEWMAC Men's Soccer Championship

BABSON PARK, Mass. -- Sophomore Jimmy Stento (Needham, Mass.) continued his brilliant late-season play by scoring the game-winning goal in the 77th minute as the top-seeded Babson College Beavers defeated second-seeded archrival Wheaton College, 2-1, in the championship game of the 2009 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Soccer Tournament at Babson's Hartwell-Rogers Field on Sunday afternoon. It marked the second consecutive conference title and the fourth in the last eight years for the Beavers (15-5-1), who entered the weekend ranked eighth in New England by the NCAA. Babson also secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament with the win - the 21st berth in team history.

Wheaton, which entered the game ranked sixth in the region by the NCAA and 18th in the country by the NSCAA, now sports an 18-4-1 record and will await a possible at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament when the field is announced on Monday morning.

After seeing limited minutes for most of the year due to an early-season illness, Stento has been magnificent down the stretch for the Beavers, coming off the bench to factor in on six of the team's last eight goals. His third goal of the season came less than a minute after checking in midway through the second half on Sunday, as he tucked a shot inside the right post off a long cross from senior Dan Fogarty (Brookline, N.H.) to snap a 1-1 tie at 76:08.

Wheaton came up empty on its final three scoring chances, as junior captain Yuri Moreira's (Marlboro, Mass.) header at the 81-minute mark rolled just wide of the right post, junior Josh Solomon's (Acton, Mass.) header in the 86th minute was successfully corralled by Babson sophomore keeper Peter Crowley (Lexington, Mass.), and junior Kyle Sye's (Acton, Mass.) shot from the left corner of the box was blocked and cleared with 35 seconds remaining.

The Lyons grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the second half, as first-year Howard Manly (Ayer, Mass.) came out of a scramble in front following a Wheaton corner kick and slid a shot past Crowley for his first goal of the season at 52:14. That lead would last until the 66-minute mark, when Babson sophomore Dan Hixon (Foxboro, Mass.) headed a corner kick from Fogarty into the upper right corner for his first of the year to knot the contest at 1-1. Hixon was later replaced in the 76th minute by Stento, who promptly netted the game-winner less than a minute later. 

Crowley finished with five saves in another strong effort in net for Babson, while junior captain Cole Davidson (Needham, Mass.) made four stops in defeat for the Lyons, including a pair of spectacular stops on would-be goals by Beavers' sophomore Billy Nickerson (Middleton, Mass.) - one in the eighth minute and another in the 66th. Manly also came up with a huge team save for Wheaton, as he blocked a wide open look by first-year Ayo Iwuagwu (Lagos, Nigeria) on the goal line with just over a minute left in the scoreless first half.