BOX SCORE
DAYTON, Ohio – The St. Bonaventure men's soccer team earned a 1-0 victory over the University of Dayton on Sunday. The much needed conference win for the Bonnies improves the team to 8-6-2 overall, 2-2-1 in the A-10; while the loss for Dayton moves them to 11-2-2 overall, 1-2-2 in the A-10.
The first half between the Bonnies and Flyers would be a scoreless one. However, the zeros on the scoreboard would not be an indication of the action on the field. A total of 17 shots would be recorded during the opening frame, with Bonnies senior Emmett O'Connor leading the way for the Brown and White with three shots.
In the second half, the game remained scoreless until the Bonnies struck in the 79th minute when Emmett O'Connor scored from six yards out for his team-leading seventh goal of the season. Eric Smolarek would record his first assist of the season on O'Connor's goal. Â The SBU defense held strong for the remainder of the contest, and the team earned a valuable conference win.
Dayton outshot the Bonnies 16-14; however, the Brown and White put two more shots on target than the Flyers. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Jeremy Figler recorded three saves in the win. Today's win was the third shutout victory for St. Bonaventure this season.
Mel Mahler, a very pleased head coach, had this to say following today's victory: "Both Coach Hesch and I are extremely proud of the boys and how they persevered this weekend. The A10 schedule is very unkind to us; playing home Friday and travelling to Dayton to play Sunday. We overcame a lot and today's victory puts us in a good spot for the A10 tournament. We still have plenty of work ahead of us but it's nice to have our last three conference matches at home."
St. Bonaventure will return to action next weekend as it hosts UMass on Sunday (Nov. 3) at 12:00 p.m. in the Bonnies only match of the week.
