By Nathan Soloman, Sports Assignment Editor
Sunday’s men’s lacrosse victory over the Canisius Golden Griffins was a bittersweet one for coach Randy Mearns and his squad. Not just that it was their first victory over the Golden Griffins in program history, but it was also Mearns’ first since leaving Canisius for St. Bonaventure. Mearns spent 19 seasons as the Golden Griffins’ head coach prior to taking the job with the Bonnies in 2017.
“It’s great,” Mearns said. “I was just more excited for our guys to actually get on the other side of the equation again.”
St. Bonaventure (3-4) fell behind early to Canisius (3-3) just days after losing 11-9 to the same team in Buffalo. The Bonnies trailed 5-2 with 4:28 left in the second quarter on Sunday before ripping off six consecutive goals over 10 minutes to take an 8-5 lead early in the third quarter.
“They got up on us 5-2, we missed some slide packages, we weren’t confident in our systems. Then, next thing you know, our offense woke up,” Mearns said. “We knew that [Canisius] would probably make another run and they got that tie back up to eight.”
From there, it was a back-and-forth dogfight to the end. Canisius tied it up early in the fourth quarter before the Bonnies snatched a two-goal lead a few minutes later.
The Golden Griffins then responded with a quick 2-0 run themselves to even it out at 10 with 10 minutes to play. Mark Belles scored on an unassisted goal with 9:17 remaining and Cian Collins followed, giving the Bonnies a 12-10 advantage with 4:28 remaining. Canisius scored a minute later to make it 12-11, and then St. Bonaventure killed the clock and came up with a big defensive stop to hold on for the one-goal victory.
“We’ve been in a lot of one-goal games and a lot of two-goal games, but we want to win our share of those,” Mearns said. “This was a great opportunity for us to build and to learn how to win and not panic in tight moments when the pressure is on…. great win, and a great win for the program.”
The Bonnies were led by junior duo Austin Blumbergs and Jake Rosa, who combined for five goals and four assists. Sophomore Mark Belles also added a pair of goals in the winning effort.
“We feel like we’ve got a couple more pieces of the puzzle back,” Mearns said. “They’re starting to click, they’re starting to trust each other, they’re knowing all the looks within Coach Conners’ offensive sets. They’re passing the ball tape-to-tape and not thinking out on the field, just doing.”
St. Bonaventure will look to continue its success in their regular season finale against Siena; however, they’ll have to wait until next Saturday to do so. Due to COVID-19 related issues within other programs, the Bonnies don’t have a game scheduled until next weekend.
“We just feel like we’ve gotten so much better all the way through,” Mearns said. “We were fortunate to have gotten the win on Sunday, and we went back to work [on Wednesday]. We got a game coming up in a week and a half [because] one win doesn’t define a season.”
Next Saturday’s game against Siena is expected to begin at 4 p.m. at Marra Athletics Complex. The event will be streamed on ESPN+.
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
