BIDDEFORD — After a sloppy first 60 minutes that saw 47 turnovers between them, one quality possession was going to be enough for a victory as Babson and the University of New England headed into overtime Thursday.

After one overtime period passed by, Babson won the second extra time faceoff and finally got that one solid possession offensively, and a win as a result when Kyle Barsalou’s bounce shot found its way over the stick of UNE goalie Joe Medel to lift the Beavers to a 5-4 victory in a Division III non-conference men’s lacrosse game on a chilly day at the Big Blue Turf.

The win lifted Babson to 4-5 on the season, while the loss, UNE’s third in a row, means the Nor’easters will head into the meat of their conference schedule at 3-6.

“This is maybe our third or fourth game where down to the wire it’s been one or two goals,” said UNE senior midfielder Dan O’Gorman, who had a goal and an assist Thursday. “Sooner or later we’re going to have to be coming out on top of these.”

The five goals was the lowest total UNE had allowed to an opponent this season as a zone defense forced the Beavers into outside shot after outside shot.

But the four goals was also the second-lowest output for a UNE team in the last three years; Babson goalie Adam Daroff made 17 saves, while UNE also turned the ball over 23 times and sent several shots from good positions wide of the cage.

“Holding a team to five goals in 60 minutes plus is great,” O’Gorman said. “It’s just our offense was brutal. It was a sloppy game and turnovers have plagued us all year.”

“Our shooting was a little off and we just had way too many turnovers,” added UNE coach Charlie Burch. “It’s something the players have to fix. We have to execute the game plan on offense, and if they’re throwing the ball away with unforced errors than we don’t have any control over the game.”

The Nor’easters had taken a 4-3 lead with 3:57 to play when Dan Auger converted a man advantage opportunity with a hard shot on a tight angle from the left.

O’Gorman had helped the Nor’easters win all five of the previous faceoffs in the second half, and a sixth in a row after Auger’s tally could have allowed UNE to run off most of the remaining clock.

But Babson came up with the ball when they had to and after sending two shots high and seeing another carom off Medel’s stick, the Beavers got the equalizer with 1:25 to play as Barsalou set up a Scott Doten snipe.

“That was a tough one to lose in such a low scoring game,” O’Gorman said of the faceoff.

Babson also won the first overtime faceoff, but Medel made the last of his 14 saves to get UNE the ball back.

Barsalou was then called for a cross check, giving UNE a minute on the man-up, but the Nor’easters couldn’t convert, sending one shot wide and another into Daroff’s stick as the first four-minute extra period ended; Barsalou made sure the clock didn’t hit triple zeros again.

“We tend to feel like we’re going to lose possession if we don’t score before the penalty runs out,” Burch said of man-up chance. “We’ve just got to be more patient.”

Neither team led by more than one goal throughout as both squads scored once apiece in each of the first three periods.

Babson had taken a 1-0 lead after six minutes, but goals from O’Gorman and Connor Leggett pushed the Nor’easters ahead before Barsalou’s first goal made it 2-2 at halftime. Doten and Pat Wolfe would then trade goals two minutes apart midway through the third period, the final scoring before Auger’s man-up goal set up a frantic finish.

“We had a good game plan and our zone really bothered them all day long,” Burch said. “They didn’t have a lot of great outside shooters, and we knew they liked to feed the inside. Our defense played against that pretty well but we couldn’t score on the other end.’”

UNE will look to regroup quickly before making the trip to Middletown, R.I., to face Salve Regina, the first of nine Commonwealth Coast Conference games UNE will play in the next three and a half weeks to end its regular season.

The Nor’easters have gotten the better of Salve each of the last seasons, but the Seahawks have started this season 8-1, including a big 16-5 win over Curry in a conference game Wednesday.

“It all starts with tomorrow’s practice,” O’Gorman said. “We have to flush this from our systems because we definitely need a bounce-back win.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.