BY NATHAN SOLOMON, SPORTS EDITOR
As winners of its last five games, St. Bonaventure lacrosse is off to a record start. In just its fourth season as a Division l program, the Bonnies are 7-2 and atop the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for the first time in school history.
“We want to embrace all of the hard work that we’ve put into this,” coach Randy Mearns said. “But nobody gives banners for mid-season success, and there’s a long way to go.”
The Bonnies opened up their season with a 12-11 loss to Saint Joseph’s, but since then, they’ve only lost once. They dropped a road contest at No. 19 Richmond, but won home games against Bellarmine, Hampton and Cleveland State. Most recently, they defeated Manhattan 15-9.
After allowing the first goal of the game, the Bonnies scored nine straight and took an 11-5 lead into the half. St. Bonaventure padded its lead with four more goals in the second half to win by six goals.
“We got up 9-1, and then it was kind of a weird thing. This was a learning experience for ourselves,” Mearns said. “It’s not that we took the pedal off the gas, [but] the next thing you know, they are still hanging around.
“We didn’t play a flawless game.”
Jake Rosa led the Bonnies with four goals, while Jackson Rose and Sean Westley each added three.
After no game last weekend, the Bonnies host Monmouth on Saturday in their penultimate home game of the 2022 season. Then, they travel to Siena and Quinnipiac before heading home to face Canisius.
“We had two tough losses against [Monmouth] last year, but on Saturday, it’s a different year,” Mearns said. “They have a different makeup in terms of their roster, we have a different make up of our roster.
“We feel like we have a pretty good scout. We got to watch them play live on Saturday and they’ve got a lot of pieces of the puzzle.”
As of now, St. Bonaventure remains the only undefeated team in the MAAC at 2-0. If they win the regular-season title, they’ll host the conference tournament at the Marra Athletics Complex. To even make the tournament, all they’ll need to do is finish top four in the league.
“As we got into the third, fourth year that we would be really able to compete in our conference,” Mearns said.
Saturday’s game against Monmouth, the team that eliminated the Bonnies last season, is scheduled for Saturday at 12 p.m. The game will stream live on ESPN+.
“Everybody knows what this game means,” Mearns said. “Our defensive core has continued to grow… They won’t surprise us this year.”
solomonj20@bonaventure.edu
