ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Senior Conor Murphy tallied a career-high six points to lead the St. Bonaventure men's lacrosse team to an 11-9 win over visiting Mercyhurst Tuesday afternoon at the Marra Athletics Complex.
Drew Kenney recorded four points in the winning effort (2G-2A) while Patrick Shanahan registered four points as well with a hat trick (3G-1A). Kellen Pulera also scored twice for the Bonnies.
Tuesday's game started in a pouring rain, transitioned to sunshine and ended under the lights with the Bonnies starting out hot and later having to respond to a Lakers rally.
The Bonnies (2-3) got out to a 3-1 lead in the opening frame. Kenney put Bona's on the board first off a feed from Kyle Pepper.
Mercyhurst (0-4) responded with a goal from Jeremi Phoenix-Lefebvre, but Nolan Wilde's first career goal put the Bonnies pack in front.
Pulera netted the third goal of the day with 7:03 remaining in the first. Shanahan recorded the helper.
Two more goals from Murphy gave the Bonnies a 5-1 advantage with 10 minutes to play in the opening half.
However, the Lakers found their rhythm offensively, going on a 4-1 run to end the period.
Murphy completed his first half hat trick with nine seconds left in the half to put Bona's back up by one. Â
Goals from Shanahan and Pulera pushed the Bonnies in front, 8-6, but the Lakers had another rally left in them as they knotted up the score 8-8 with 14:06 remaining.
Shanahan helped put the Bonnies back in control as he broke the tie with an unassisted goal with 10:59 to play, then he struck again off a feed from Murphy with 6:25 showing on the clock.
Mercyhurst pulled back within one when Ethan Landymore scored with 2:58 to go, but the Bonnies were able to win the next faceoff and run the clock down under 50 seconds. Mercyhurst got the ball back but couldn't put a shot on net before Benny Carter caused a turnover to ice the game.
Kaden Brennan, Cole Tucker and Chris Lawrence all handed out assists for the Bonnies.
Isaac Farmer made six saves to earn the win in net while Carter caused two turnovers and picked up four groundballs. Cameron Viavada also logged two caused turnovers.
Lad Harper dominated the faceoff dot, winning 15 of 22 faceoffs along with eight groundballs.
The Bonnies led in shots (46-35) and groundballs (36-20) while leading faceoff wins 16-8. Bona's penalty kill did its job, successfully holding the Lakers scoreless in their three man-up opportunities.
QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH RANDY MEARNS
"Today was another gritty effort from our team. Mercyhurst is a solid team. We're so proud of our guys being able to handle to ebs and flows of a tough contest and learning how to close out a close game."
"Our faceoff unit was great. We battled incredibly hard on groundballs and had a ton of looks at the cage. We'll celebrate a hard-fought victory for a night and start getting ready for Le Moyne."
UP NEXT
The Bonnies travel to Syracuse to play at Le Moyne in the first-ever matchup between SBU and the Dolphins on Saturday. Faceoff is slated for 2 p.m.
 ------Â
For the latest news on St. Bonaventure athletics, stay connected on social media. Follow the Bonnies on X @GoBonnies and get men's lacrosse updates @BonniesMLAX. Keep up with the Bonnies on Facebook /GoBonnies and on Instagram @BonniesMLAX.
