By Nathan Soloman, Sports Assignment Editor
After a convincing 11-6 victory over Siena on Saturday, the St. Bonaventure University’s men’s lacrosse team is on their way to the program’s inaugural MAAC tournament as the number six seed. Winners of three of the last four games, the Bonnies head into Friday’s match-up against Detroit Mercy with a lot of confidence.
“We have momentum,” coach Randy Mearns said. “It’s all about the little things, it’s taking care of the details. But being on the winning side and having some momentum going forward and being 3-1 at home, we feel we’re in a really good spot to continue to take that next step.”
In a seven-team conference tournament, the number six seed would typically play an away game in the first round. However, Detroit Mercy is leaving the MAAC conference for the ASUN and that makes them ineligible to host any playoff games. Therefore, the Bonnies will host Friday’s first round match-up at the Marra Sports Complex.
“We’re excited to actually have [the game] at home,” Mearns said. “But that’s the challenge. Then you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game because if it goes the other way very badly, we’re doing it in front of our home fans and we don’t want that to happen. So, maybe it’s a little extra motivation for the boys.”
The Bonnies faced the talented Detroit Mercy squad earlier in Bonaventure’s biggest loss of the season: an 11-7 defeat. However, Mearns believes the loss was attributed to some overconfidence from both coaches and players on the team.
“We had just come off our first ever program win, and for the next three days when we returned to campus, there were a lot of interviews and we got a lot of coverage. Going to Detroit [Mercy], we kind of felt like ‘oh my god, we’re really good, they’re just going to give us wins now,’” Mearns said. “I don’t know if we prepared our guys for Detroit to the best of our ability and Detroit got right up on top of us. In six minutes, it was like 4-0 and we were like deer in headlights.”
To knock off Detroit Mercy and advance to the conference semifinals, the Bonnies will have to deal with goalie Logan Shamblin and face-off specialist Alex Jarzembowski; two of the best players in the league at their respective positions. However, the Bonnies have their own weapons, including all-league players Austin Blumbergs, Brett Dobson and Zack Belter, as well as MAAC Offensive Player of the Year Jake Rosa. Dobson led the conference in saves per game while Rosa led in total points.
“They’ve earned those accolades,” Mearns said. “They are the first accolades as a program that we’ve ever gotten and it’s a great thing to build upon this foundation.”
Friday’s game between the Bonnies and the Titans starts at 1 p.m. as part of a MAAC lacrosse tripleheader on ESPN+. The winner of Friday’s match-up at Bonaventure advances to play the winner or Monmouth and Siena on Wednesday.
“If things go right and we get great goaltending and we can win some ground balls and the offense can put the ball in the net, then maybe we can move onto the semifinals,” Mearns said. “Detroit’s the obstacle in front of us, and it’s going to be a hard obstacle to get over, but I believe our guys can do it.”
solomanj20@bonaventure.edu
