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Canisius University Athletics

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group huddle vs SBU 4-9-19
Dean Bogart
16
Winner Canisius CAN 7-5, 3-1
8
St. Bonaventure SBU 0-11, 0-6
Winner
Canisius CAN
7-5, 3-1
16
Final
8
St. Bonaventure SBU
0-11, 0-6
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Canisius CAN 9 1 5 1 16
St. Bonaventure SBU 0 2 1 5 8

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse |

Quick Start Sparks Men’s Lacrosse Past St. Bonaventure

Canisius opened the contest with nine unanswered goals to build an early cushion and cruise to a 16-8 victory over St. Bonaventure in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men's lacrosse action Tuesday at the Marra Athletics Complex in Olean, N.Y.
 
Senior Mario Caito scored five goals and freshman Jacob Buck added four tallies as well as an assist to pace a potent Golden Griffins (7-5, 3-1 MAAC) attack that matched its season high for goals scored in the victory.
 
Freshman Isaiah Ricketts scored twice while five players – senior Layne Collins, juniors Mathieu Boissonneault and Carter Stefaniak and freshmen Jake Lemon and Mike Penna – finished with one goal each.
 
Austin Blumbergs and Cian Collins tallied two goals apiece for the Bonnies (0-11, 0-6 MAAC), who are in their first season of Division I competition.  
 
Canisius controlled the game from the opening faceoff, using tallies from Buck and Caito on the game's opening two possessions to build a quick advantage and spark a sequence that saw the Griffs dominate the next 13 minutes as it built a nine-goal cushion before the end of the opening frame.
 
Caito and Buck recorded hat tricks to pace Canisius during the first-quarter outburst while Lemon, Penna and Ricketts all added individual tallies.
 
Collins finally got St. Bonaventure on the scoreboard at the 10:34 mark of the second quarter and Blumbergs added a second tally a little more than three minutes later to make it 9-2.  
 
Buck got the Griffs back on track moments later, recording his fourth tally of the contest to close out the first-half scoring and spark a second Canisius run, this time a five-goal spurt, that stretched into the later stages of the third quarter and gave the Griffs their largest margin of the contest, 14-2.
 
The teams traded goals to close out the third while the Bonnies took advantage of a pair of markers to open the fourth and make it a 10-goal contest.
 
Ricketts notched his second of the game with less than five minutes remaining to push the Canisius margin to 16-5, but three unanswered goals from St. Bonaventure in the final four minutes of play closed out the scoring.  
 
Head Coach Mark Miyashita's Postgame Comments
"Anytime you've got to play a game on a Saturday and then turnaround and play again midweek, it's going to be a challenge. I'm really happy with how the guys bore down and focused on the task at hand with one day of preparation and came out tonight and got the win.
 
"Daniel (Balawejder) got us going right out of the gates at the faceoff X. His effort and intensity, he just had really good bounce in his step and the guys fed off that and we were able to put the ball in the back of the net a number of times because of his efforts.
 
"We're happy with the defensive effort that we've had in the last handful of games in conference play and we want to make sure that we continue to take care of our back end. Hopefully this is a trend we can continue."
 
Game Notes
• Tuesday's contest served as the fifth meeting between Canisius and St. Bonaventure and the first since the 1993 campaign. Canisius took a 3-2 lead in the all-time series with Tuesday's victory.  
• Canisius out-shot St. Bonaventure by a 37-34 margin for the contest, highlighted by a 15-6 margin in the first quarter.
• Canisius held a 35-19 edge in ground balls in the game, including a 13-2 margin in that category in the first quarter.
• The Griffs were 3-of-4 in man-up situations while St. Bonaventure was 1-for-3.
• Canisius held its sixth opponent to single-digit goals this season and improved to 5-1 when doing so. Five of those efforts have come in the last six contests.
• The 16 goals socred by Canisius matched its season high in that category, equaling its output against Hartford on Feb. 23.
• Caito recorded his third straight hat trick and his fifth of the season with his five-goal effort on Tuesday.
• Buck matched his season high in both goals (4) and points (5) on Tuesday. The hat trick was his second of the campaign.
• Junior Daniel Balawejder was 13-of-17 at the faceoff X as he recorded double-digit faceoff wins for the ninth time this season. He also led all players with six ground balls.
 
Up Next
• Canisius travels to the Motor City for a MAAC matchup against league foe Detroit Mercy.
• The rematch of the 2018 MAAC Men's Lacrosse Championship title game is set for Noon at Titan Field.
 
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