BABSON PARK, Mass. -- The Bates men's lacrosse team rallied from a 10-1 deficit but couldn't complete the comeback in a 12-7 season opening loss to the Babson College Beavers Wednesday afternoon. 

Seven different players scored for the Bobcats (0-1) while Matt Stucchi paced the Beavers (2-0) with four goals. 

Senior captain Jack Lousararian (Mansfield, Mass.) and sophomore Wil Masterson (York, Maine) paced the Bobcats with a goal and an assist each. 

Senior captain Jackson Sell (Mill Valley, Calif.) put Bates on the board first, scoring an unassisted tally with 13:44 left in the first quarter. But Stucchi took advantage of a man up situation and scored the equalizer on an assist from Chi Chi Price with 11:01 to go in the first. Then Jacob Tauss put the Beavers ahead for good with 10:15 remaining on an assist from Topher Bower. This was part of a 10-0 run for Babson which put them up 10-1 after a Lee Sipes goal with 5:43 left in the second quarter.

Neither team scored over the final five-plus minutes and the Bobcats found themselves down 10-1 at the half.

The Bates defense buckled down and blanked the Beavers in the third quarter. Meanwhile, sophomore Jake Johnson (Lake Forest Park, Wash.), Lousararian, and Masterson all found the back of the net to trim the deficit to 10-4 through three. 

Babson and Bates traded goals to start the fourth quarter but the Bobcats needed to make a run and it didn't happen down the stretch. Down seven with 3:54 left, Bates finished the game strong with goals from junior Malcolm Klingbeil (Powell, Ohio) and sophomore Max Patterson (Cape Elizabeth, Maine). 

The Beavers out-shot the Bobcats 52-31. The sheer number of shots taken by the Beavers was the biggest difference in the game, as faceoffs (13-10 in favor of Babson), ground balls (27-26 in favor of Babson) and turnovers (17-19 in favor of Bates) were all pretty even on the afternoon.

Mac Mowat made 13 saves for the Beavers to pick up the win. Junior Garrett FitzSimons (Garden City, N.Y.) allowed just two goals while playing the final 30 minutes of the game for Bates, making five saves along the way.

The Bobcats are back in action Sunday at 12pm when they visit No. 1 nationally ranked RIT.