ALLEGANY, N.Y. — Local lacrosse is heating up here in Western New York. We know the Buffalo Bandits are one of the best teams on the pro level, but in college, the St. Bonaventure men's lacrosse team is having a historic year.
Despite losing their first game in six weeks on Saturday against Siena, the program is reaching historic heights under former Bandit player and now current head coach Randy Mearns.
For the first time in program history, the St. Bonaventure men's lacrosse team is earning votes in the national Top 20 polls.
The Bonnies jumped into the weekend on a six-game winning streak, the highest in program history, and the team is looking like one of the best in the nation.
Coach Mearns said, "Let's not get way overboard and think we are just going to win now because we have some of these great articles. Let's just put our feet firmly on the ground and embrace everything that we have been doing for us to get here, you know, all that hard work and sacrifice. We have to get back to work."
St. Bonaventure has already set the program record for victories with eight. Last year, the Bonnies won only their first five games at the Division I level.
Individually, this week, senior Sean Westley was the first to hit his 100th point in program history, a special milestone for the team.
The foundation has been built, a program that is starting to expect nothing but the best.
"It's the guys we brought in, they knew it would be a challenge, they have dreams and goals for themselves. Nothing worthwhile is easy," Mearns said.
A Division I title will certainly be worthwhile but challenging, of course. The Bonnies have two regular season games left on the final two Saturdays of the month of April before they start their conference tournament the first week of May.
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