ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – The St. Bonaventure men's soccer team (4-7-2, 0-2-1 Atlantic 10 Conference), scheduled to open its home A-10 slate on Friday, will have to wait another few days as its game against visiting Rhode Island University has been moved to Bradford High School in Pennsylvania due to unplayable conditions following heavy, consistent rain.
The game, originally scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday at McGraw-Jennings Field, has been moved to a 7 p.m. start. Below is the address for Parkway Stadium, located approximately 25 minutes away from the Bonaventure campus:
Bradford High School
81 Interstate Parkway
Bradford, Pa. 16701
The de facto home game against Rhode Island (4-8-1, 1-2-1 A-10), and subsequent scheduled home matchup against Massachusetts on Sunday, will be the first home contests for St. Bonaventure in more than a month.
The Bonnies will be looking to put an end to a four-game winless streak, as most recently the club dropped games at No. 11 Charlotte and Saint Louis last weekend. The last time SBU recorded a win was Sept. 21 at Cleveland State. Since that game, St. Bonaventure has tied twice and lost twice.
Bonaventure enters the weekend with six conference games remaining, finding itself tied for 12th in the standings with Duquesne with one point. Rhody sits in solo 10th with four points, while UMass is tied for fourth with seven points with Xavier – which is receiving votes in the national polls. The top six teams qualify for the A-10 Championship at Saint Louis in November.
Rhode Island enters Friday's game looking to stop its own two-game losing streak. Last weekend, the Rams dropped matches at La Salle and Fordham, both by scores of 2-1.
The Rhody offense is a good bet to keep Bona goalie Mitchell Mack and his defense busy. So far this year, the Rams have gotten off 200 shots, good for second in the A-10 only to nationally ranked Charlotte.
Leading the Rams offensively is freshman Ross Morrison. In 13 games this year, Morrison leads the team in points (seven), is tied for the lead in goals (three) and is tied for second in assists (one).
As for the Minutemen, they enter Sunday's scheduled 1 p.m. contest with a 2-1-1 record in A-10 play and 4-9-1 overall. Massachusetts is unbeaten in its last three games, including wins over Saint Louis and Fordham, which occupies second place in the conference ledger with nine points.
Leading the charge at the defensive end for the Minutemen is redshirt senior goalie Shane Curran-Hayes. The Camp Hill, Pa., native leads a UMass defense which has recorded the fourth-most shutouts in the A-10. Curran-Hayes ranks in the top five in both shutouts (four) and shutouts per game (0.33). The senior also ranks sixth in the A-10 with 55 saves, and seventh with 4.58 saves per game.
Following this weekend, the Brown and White is scheduled to conclude the home portion of its docket next weekend, Oct. 28 and 30, with contests against Saint Joseph's and Temple, respectively.
