After going up 2-0 in the first half, the St. Bonaventure men's soccer team never looked back, shutting out Xavier, 3-0, in an Atlantic 10 Conference win against Xavier at Parkway Field on Sunday afternoon.

The shutout is the Bonnies' third of the season. The Brown and White now stand 6-5 on the season and improve to 2-1 in conference play. Xavier falls to 2-8-1, 1-3-0 in A-10 play.

"It was a great conference win. We're encourage with out progress and we'll continue to try to get better every day and from match to match," said head coach Mel Mahler. "Anytime you can score three and defend for a shutout its a good day."

St. Bonaventure controlled the game, getting an 8-7 edge in shots and holding down corner kicks 8-6. Four of the Musketeers corners happened in the last 10 minutes of play.

Senior Sam Maheu notched his team-high eighth goal of the season off of a post-rebound from junior Fabrizio Savarino at 22:02, to put the Bonnies up 1-0.

At the 35:16 mark, Maheu started a charge towards the net again. Seeing junior Brett Allen in scoring position, Maheu touched the ball to Allen to send it past keeper Andrea Berezza in the center of the net, pushing the score to 2-0. Allen picks up his third goal of the season and is now second in points with 11.

Maheu was not finished scoring though. Just four minutes into the second half, he used a long pass from fellow classmate Joe Miller to go one-on-one with the keeper and the third goal of the game, his second and secure the shutout.

Junior goalkeeper David Flynn picked up his 12th career shutout. Flynn made three saves d

uring the match and several blocks to keep the ball away from his zone.

Maheu leads the team with nine goals and four assists for 22 points on the season. He sits seventh on the Bonnies' all-time scoring list with a total 20 goals and 11 assists for 51 points through his four years.

The Bonnies continue Atlantic 10 action on the road on Friday traveling to face the Temple Owls in Philadelphia, Pa. Kick-off is set for 12:30 p.m.

"We face an even more difficult task - going on the road for the next five conference games. Not to be forgotten is our make up match with Dayton sometime in November. We are excited about the next three weeks," said Mahler.