LOUISVILLE, Ky. – St. Bonaventure started strong before the Bellarmine defense locked in as the host Knights battled the Bonnies and multiple weather delays for a 9-5 victory Saturday afternoon.

The result snaps a three-game winning streak for the Bonnies who fall to 5-5 on the season while Bellarmine improves to 6-5.

Bona's offense was clicking early, scoring five times in the first 17 minutes and change of game action.

The Knights would not allow another goal, however, scoring the final seven tallies to take the win.

Both teams made scoring runs during a back-and-forth first half.

After Bellarmine scored first two minutes in, the Bonnies got on the board via a pole goal as Kellen Pulera dished in front to long pole Owen Tasse who deposited his second career score for an early tie.

Bellarmine took a 2-1 advantage before the Bonnies ran off four straight goals.

Cole Tucker beat his defender on the dodge for a 2-2 tie before Drew Kenney found Conor Murphy in front for Bona's first lead of the day.

Kenney then took his turn in finding the back of the net as he scored on the man-up just before Murphy netted his second of the afternoon with a shot over the shoulder of the Knights goalie for a 5-2 advantage and 13:39 left in the half.

From there, though, the Bonnies went quiet as the Knights began to dominate the faceoff dot to fuel their attack. Bellarmine scored four unanswered before intermission including a strike from Michael Blaymires 21 seconds before the half for a 6-5 lead at the break.

After a lengthy lightning delay at halftime, Bellarmine extended its run with two goals in the third before a second lightning stoppage, this one of more than an hour.

As the action and rain picked up once again, Bona had chances to break its scoring drought, but Bellarmine's freshman goalie Nolan Hudnut made multiple impressive saves as part of 16 stops to pick up the win in the cage.

St. Bonaventure held a 34-33 edge in total shots as well as 27-25 in groundballs while being successful in 19 of 20 clear attempts, but 21 turnovers slowed the efforts of the Bonnies.

Reigning Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week Isaac Farmer was solid again in net as he tied his career high with 14 saves.

Fellow underclassmen Aaron Eberhard and Connor Ballou were impressive defensively as well with Eberhard contributing two caused turnovers and a career-best five groundballs while Ballou scooped up a personal best four groundballs.

Murphy (2G-1A) and Kenney (1G-1A) each had multi-point days for the Bonnies.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH RANDY MEARNS
"It wasn't our day today. We played with a ton of grit and at times we played really well. Defensively, offensively, clearing and faceoffs, we did good things at times. On the other hand, there were times where we played sloppy with untimely turnovers and the game got away from us. We'll learn from it and get back to work on Monday morning."

UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure returns to action Tuesday, March 25 vs. Binghamton at home in the non-conference finale.

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