Box Score ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The Tufts University men's lacrosse team ran into a hot goaltender in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament today against Babson College, but still had enough firepower to earn a 16-7 victory over the Beavers.
Babson's Mac Mowat finished with 29 saves, but the Jumbos never trailed while eliminating a Beaver team that was making its first NCAA appearance since 1979. Junior Mac Bredahl tallied two goals with four assists for the Jumbos, while classmate Cam Kelleher scored four times.
Tufts (7-0) advances to play host St. John Fisher College, who won their NCAA opener against SUNY Maritime 21-6 today. The Cardinals (12-3) are the host of the Regional weekend and will play the Jumbos in the "Sweet 16" on Sunday at 2:00 pm.
Babson (5-1) was paced offensively today by two goals each from Sean Smith and Chi Chi Price.
The game was tied at 2-2 when Peter Chisholm scored off a Will Messner pass for the Beavers at 7:01 of the first quarter. However, the Jumbos would finish the period with two goals and scored the first of the second quarter to lead 5-2. Kelleher had two during that three-goal run.
Tufts wouldn't trail again, but they couldn't open a sizable lead until the fourth. Mowat and the Beaver defense, who entered the game with a nationally-ranked 5.87 goals against average and .614 save percentage, had 11 first-period saves and five more in the second quarter.
After Smith had pulled Babson within 5-3 early in the second, goals by Matt Treiber - his eighth man-up goal of the season - and Bredahl made it a 7-3 lead for the Jumbos with six minutes remaining in the half. That's how it went for the final five of the half too, with Price scoring for the Beavers and Tufts answering with two by Bryce Adam and Kurt Bruun for a 9-4 halftime advantage.
Babson's Smith scored 25 seconds into the second half to cut the lead to 9-5, but that's when Tufts established a long run. They scored the next four, including two by Kelleher for a 13-5 margin early in the fourth quarter. Babson got the next one from Price, but the Jumbos netted three more in a row and led 16-6 on Cole Salton's strike with 5:29 remaining in regulation. Overall it was a 7-1 Tufts stretch turning a 9-5 lead into 16-6.
Babson added their seventh goal of the game by Mason O'Hanlon man-up with two seconds left on the clock.
Senior Joe Theuer was strong in net for Tufts as well, finishing with 16 saves on 22 shots (.727) in 55+ minutes. Defenseman Finn McTernan recorded three ground balls and two caused turnovers for the Jumbos. Kyle Adelmann, Evan Cunningham and Max Waldbaum (2 goals, 3 assists) all finished with four ground balls. Aidan Hesse won six of his 10 face-offs for the Jumbos.
Jack Tague was strong for Babson defensively recording three caused turnovers and five ground balls.
The Jumbos finished with advantages of 66-44 in shots, 45-35 in ground balls and 13-12 on face-offs.
Tufts is in its 13th NCAA Tournament berth and improved to 32-9 overall with today's win. Babson, whose last NCAA berth came as a Division II team in 1979, dropped to 0-2 in the tournament.
