ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – St. Bonaventure dominated the second half to turn the tide on visiting Mercer and score a 9-5 win at a wintry, windswept Marra Athletics Complex Thursday afternoon.

With snow falling and wind howling, Mercer grabbed a 4-1 lead early in the second quarter.

The Bonnies (3-4) took momentum into the locker room, though, as Anthony Cimino cut the deficit to 4-2 shortly before the half.

St. Bonaventure knotted up the score just over four minutes into the third as Kyle Pepper and Jake Kucinski both scored to even the ledger.

Mercer (1-5) briefly took the lead back as Kade McNeil struck for a 5-4 tally with 9:14 left in the third.

From there, the Bonnies completely iced out the Bears.

Bona held the Bears off the scoreboard for the final 24 minutes with stifling defense.

Redshirt sophomore long pole Owen Tasse set a new school record with six caused turnovers on the day, five coming in the second half alone.

The defense led to 22 Mercer turnovers and only allowed 30 shot attempts.

Cole Tucker evened up the game with his goal at the 4:56 mark of the third and the 5-5 tie remained for nearly 10 minutes of game time.

With offense at a premium in the difficult playing conditions, Conor Murphy helped the Bonnies to take over in the fourth.

Murphy scored twice in the final quarter including what turned out to be the game-winner as he found the back of the net off the dodge, sending a rocket through multiple defenders with 9:12 to play.

Jake Kucinski gave the Bonnies their first multi-score lead of the afternoon with his goal just under two minutes later and Kellen Pulera handed SBU complete control as he netted the eighth goal of the day off a rebound in front.

Murphy posted his second of the day to complete the scoring as Mercer was shutout in the fourth and the Bonnies outscored the visitors 7-1 in the second half.

Freshman Isaac Farmer recorded the win in net with 11 saves and Alex Polisoto also caused three Mercer turnovers.

Both teams successfully killed off their only two power play opportunities they faced.

Mercer held a 10-7 advantage at the faceoff dot with Lad Harper accounting for all of Bona's faceoff wins.

Dylan McKelvy posted two goals for Mercer.

GAME NOTES

• Tasse broke the previous Bonnies single-game record for caused turnovers of five set by Nick Conklin in 2019 vs. Monmouth. Tasse's previous career-high was four set vs. High Point in 2023.
• Bona's defense had the fewest goals allowed to an opponent since surrendering three vs. Monmouth April 9, 2022.
• Farmer recorded 11 or more saves for the third time this season.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH RANDY MEARNS
"So proud of our guys; today was a great team win. We were a little sloppy in the beginning, but our guys showed a ton of resiliency and grit and got back to fundamentals. It was a great effort by our defensive unit to hold Mercer to five goals which is really hard to do. Alex Polisoto, Aaron Eberhard and Connor Ballou played great down low. Isaac settled in and made some key saves in the second half. Owen Tasse had a day and our defensive midfielders had their best game thus far."

"The clearing game improved and our offense started to find itself. We chipped away and a huge goal by Conor Murphy capitalized on our momentum to give us our first lead. We'll enjoy it for a few hours and then get right back at it vs. Cleveland State."

UP NEXT
St. Bonaventure has a quick turnaround, completing a busy week at home by hosting Cleveland State. Faceoff is set for 3 p.m. as the second half of a Marra Athletics Complex doubleheader following the women's game earlier in the day.

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