By Mike Hogan, Editor-in-Chief
St. Bonaventure men’s lacrosse coach Randy Mearns stood in the corner of his team’s brand-new locker room and reflected on his program’s inaugural season.
Last year, his team of 33 freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and one senior was thrown into action. There was no layover. Mearns wanted his team to taste the Division I level.
And it did. The Bonnies went 0-13, and the closest the team got to a win was a 7-5 home loss to Monmouth.
Mearns described last season as fun, arduous and daunting. At the same time, he said it allowed him and his coaching staff to get to know their players and build a foundation for the future.
“At the end of it,” Mearns said, “we felt that we had phenomenal goalies, talented defense men, good long-stick midfielders, attack and midfielders. We were just young. We challenged our guys over the summer to get in the weight room. We had to get bigger and stronger. It was apparent from living it and watching film, we got pushed off the ball a lot. We were playing against seniors and juniors.”
While his team struggled to sustain success in its inaugural season, Mearns said he came away most impressed with his team’s resilience.
“My biggest takeaway was the gumption and the resilience of our guys,” Mearns said. “They knew that it was going to be really, really hard to do. We took a lot of licks, a lot of punches to the face, but our guys continued to grind and get better.”
As the team embarks on the 2020 season, which starts this Sunday with a game against the St. Joseph’s University Hawks, Mearns said the program is light years ahead of where it was a year ago at this time. Everyone from the top down feels more prepared, according to Mearns.
A big reason for that sense of calmness, is that the game has slowed down for his players. With almost all of last year’s team returning, this team has a chemistry that it lacked last season.
“We had a good 24 to 25 guys that got a ton of experience game-in and game-out last year,” Mearns said. “I feel with our group coming back, along with the freshmen and a couple of transfers, they know what it’s all about. When we’re going through some of the different scenarios in practice, like clearing the ball, we don’t panic as much anymore. We’re composed. We know the next play.”
On top of having a roster full of confident returners, Mearns said there are more established leaders in the locker room that younger players can look toward for advice.
“You can feel the sense of chemistry being built within the group,” Mearns said. “Young guys can look around the locker now and go, ‘wow Daire Newbrough is good. Austin Blumbergs is good. Cian Collins is talented.’”
Mearns continued, “You go up and down the roster and go, ‘wow that kid’s legit and he’s a freshman. That kid’s pretty legit and he’s a sophomore. Where can we take this thing?’”
In terms of the newcomers, Mearns said freshman Jake Rosa is a special talent.
During his senior year of high school, Rosa, from Windsor, Ontario, scored 58 goals to go along with 28 assists en-route to being named his team’s most-valuable player.
“Where he fits in our offense is still to be determined,” Mearns said. “But he can play a variety of positions. Whether he’s a two-way midfielder or an attack man, he’s really impressed me. But I think all of our freshmen bring something special to the table.”
Though the team has a positive outlook for the 2020 season, answers on how much improvement has happened from last season to this season will ultimately be answered on the field.
As a team last season, the Bonnies only won 76 of their 243 total face offs.
“Jack Almond, Mike DiSpigno, Max Brie, who was a defensive midfielder, did a lot of training on face offs this off season,” Mearns said. “Here’s the thing, when we scrimmaged this off season, we won our fair share of face offs. Our problem, though, was we never, ever picked up a ground ball. We feel as if we improved, but we also know that it could be a sore spot for us. We have guys that will battle.”
Mearns continued, “The good news, we have phenomenal defense and goaltenders. If we’re not doing well on face offs, we need to clear the ball better. We struggled clearing last year as well, we’ve tried to get better at every facet of the game, and I think we’ve made great strides.”
And with talk of his goaltenders comes his team’s biggest question. Sophomores Brett Dobson and Ben Mazur essentially split time last season.
Both goaltenders put up similar numbers. Dobson played in 11 games, starting seven of them. In those 11 games, Dobson faced 363 shots and made 118 saves while allowing 94 goals. Mazur, on the other hand, played in 12 games and started six of them. Mazur faced 318 shots and made 93 saves while allowing 99 goals.
The plan for now, according to Mearns, is to play it by committee once again. But even he knows it has to be one or the other at some point.
“They both got time in our scrimmages,” Mearns said. “We challenge those guys, because they, themselves, want to know. Splitting time is pretty tough. The good news is, they get to play every game. The bad news is, they’re only playing half the game. They want to get to a point where it’s one or the other, but quite honestly, it’s like splitting hairs. We do a lot of quantitative analysis. Who is clearing the ball better? Who is making saves? Who is making more saves? And they push each other. They’re great competitors and they respect each other. It’s going to be tough, but we’ll have a decision by the time we get to St. Joe’s. We still have a few days to go.”
For a team with a foundation established, the goal, for now, is to keep growing, according to Mearns. But the ultimate goal for Mearns and his players is to win a game. A win would mark the program’s first at the NCAA Division I level.
“The message is, it doesn’t come easy,” Mearns said. “You have to continue to get better every day.”
Mearns said, “We want to get off the schnide. We want to win a game. We went winless last year, and that wasn’t easy on these guys. All of a sudden, they’re going home, and it’s summer time. They’ve got family friends saying, ‘hey, how’s it going o-fer.’”
While a win is the short-term goal for Mearns and his team, he said anything can happen over the course of the season.
“Longer term, for this year, is to make our conference championship,” Mearns said. “We’re in the MAAC with seven other capable programs. If you can get to the conference tournament, it’s two games. Anything can happen. I’ve been there. The next thing you know, you’re in the NCAA Tournament.”
“Boy, wouldn’t that be trippy in the second year and you’re already in the NCAA Tournament?” Mearns said. “We have a long way to go. We love our guys. They work hard. They compete. We’ve got to continue to put the pieces of the puzzle together and keep moving it forward.”
hoganm17@bonaventure.edu
