Men’s lacrosse getting first action

St. Bonaventure’s newest team got its first taste of action in a scrimmage against John Carroll two weeks ago.
Men’s lacrosse travelled to Ellicottville, New York for the Ellicottville Lacrosse Festival. The team held a 5-2 lead at one point in the first half, but ultimately lost in their its opening matchup as a team.
“I thought defensive-wise, we played very, very well,” first-year head coach Randy Mearns said. “We were athletic. I felt like, from a size standpoint, we were bigger than John Carroll. But, they also played with all seniors and juniors.”
Sophomore midfielder Ethan Pryor said despite the loss, the team’s first game was beneficial because of what it taught the players.
“We learned what we need to work on fundamentally from communication to ball movement, but we also learned more about each other as teammates,” Pryor said. “Things like where guys are going to cut or dodge and how to work best on the field together.”
Freshman goaltender Ben Mazur called the game exciting due to being able to see what their teammates bring to the team.
“We showed that we have talent and toughness, but we also have to clean things up and be more consistent,” Mazur said.
Mearns said in the 40 or so days the team has been on campus, they’ve already been able to set up some offensive and defensive schemes.
“From there, it’s looking at it from a roster standpoint and determining who can fill roles that we’re looking for,” Mearns said. “Each team that we’re going to play in the spring, they’re all different. Some might have smaller attackmen and some might have six-three attackmen.”
Another perk of getting out and playing another team is learning what the team needs to work on for the future. Freshman attacker Jack Kenney found the scrimmage showed the team specific facets to work on before upcoming matches.
“The last two weeks we have worked on running our offense effectively, our communication on defense and clearing the ball out of the zone effectively,” Kenney said.
Pryor also added the team has been putting in lots of hours on the field and in the weight room, while also watching film from their scrimmage and practices to see what they need to work on.
The work the team has been putting in this fall will get shown off tonight when Bona’s takes on the Israel National Team at 6:30 p.m. at the Marra Athletic Fields Complex.
“It should be pretty competitive,” Mearns said. “This is a growing thing for [Israel] as well. We’re kind of going in blind, but we’re just going to worry about ourselves and what we need to do in order to get better.”
After playing Israel, the team will travel to Canton, Ohio on Sunday to play two scrimmages against Lake Erie College? at 2 p.m. and Seton Hill University at 4 p.m. They finish up their fall schedule with a scrimmage at Mercyhurst on October 14 at 2 p.m.
Mearns said Lake Erie and Seton Hill are strong competition despite not being Division I. Mazur said these early scrimmages allow the team to develop chemistry.
“All of these upcoming scrimmages are against great competition so we want to show them that we belong at this level too,” Mazur said. “We want to continue to grow as a team and take what we have been working on in practice into a game setting.”