By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — With Atlantic 10 play fast-approaching, the St. Bonaventure men’s soccer team was in search of a statement win in head coach Mick Giordano’s first year in charge.
A 5-0 rout of Little Three rival Canisius provided just that.
The Bonnies were all systems go from the game’s first whistle, they scored early and often, handled the fast-paced attack that the Golden Griffins possessed, but what stood out more to Giordano than anything was the camaraderie displayed between his players.
There was not one moment in which the Bona bench was not in full voice throughout the entirety of the affair. It was that brotherhood mixed with the performance on the field that left him at a loss when it came to describing what this type of result means for him and his program.
“I can’t really put into words how much it means to me, I’m just so proud of every single one of our guys (and) the staff,” Giordano said. “We were a bit tired at the end of when we had Le Moyne last week, but the boys reset. Honestly, again, I just can’t say how proud I am and how much it means to me, I have no words. It’s just so much joy to see these guys get after it and have that much joy and fun and celebrate each other as we went.”
Bona scored its first goal just five minutes into the contest via a European connection as Ricardo Rittersberger Galan latched onto a smart pass from Jesper van Halderen. Keeping its foot on the pedal, the majority of chances throughout the remainder of the opening half fell the way of the hosts as well.
“Everyone got to see the amount of drive and energy and passion the entire group has, and it’s not for themselves, it’s for each other,” Giordano said, “There’s no stronger power than doing something for one of your brothers, one of your boys, one of your teammates, and that energy you can just feed off of it. Tonight, you could reach out and touch it. The great start was wonderful, but then we kept going. We knew Canisius had so much fight in them. … A big emphasis coming into (this game) was, we have to kill them off. We cannot just settle for one or two, because they’ll keep going and I’m just really proud they managed to do that.”
And Canisius was certainly not without its opportunities. Up top, the visitors had a number of speedy options that put the Bona defense under pressure at times. But, much to the satisfaction of Giordano, his back line held firm.
“To keep another clean sheet, keep a clean sheet at home, it’s a big emphasis for us,” Giordano said. “To be able to do that, it speaks volumes of every single guy that defended, the entire group’s defending. We were very fortunate. … We locked it down, the boys started to step up and recognize what we had to do, and kept going.”
The Bonnies’ grip on the game eventually yielded another goal, notching them a brace mere seconds before halftime as Canisius was whistled for a foul in their own penalty area. Remaining cool under pressure, Kyle Macfarlane sent the Golden Griffins’ goalkeeper the wrong way before slotting home.
Holding a 2-0 lead after 45 minutes was good, but as Giordano said, the objective he and his staff laid out was to not let up. Fortunately for him, his squad got going just as quickly in the second half as it did in the first.
Adding to his assist tally, van Halderen got on the scoresheet six minutes into the half, finding the top corner after a great move created space between him and his defender.
St. Bonaventure’s Callum Shillington (6) and Jesper van Halderen (9) celebrate after scoring against Canisius. (St. Bonaventure Athletics)
However, unlike the first half, the Bona faithful — which were out in droves — did not have to wait another 40 minutes to see its next goal. Eight minutes after van Halderen’s goal, Seth Hammond netted his first of two wonder strikes on the evening. Bringing down an exquisite pass from Callum Shillington with his chest, Hammond fired a volley into the top left corner. Just two minutes later he had his second, this time via a scissor kick that found its way into the top right corner.
“We’ve seen for the last several weeks how good Seth is, and I’m very blessed to have known and worked with Seth for several years and know how good he is,” Giordano said of his two-goal scorer. “To have him come up here and continue to display those energies and that effort behind it just warms me. … We always talk about how our best players have to step up. If our best players step up and they lead and they drive us on, we’re going to be flying.”
The lethal potential of the Bonnies’ attack was put on full display in its pummeling of the Golden Griffins. In fact, it was the most goals they had scored in a game since Sept. 9, 2013 when they defeated Howard 5-1. And what made things all the better for Giordano was that a number of players were able to get in on the action.
“The ability to have several guys that can hurt you and be dangerous, that just makes it unpredictable for you as a defending group,” Giordano said. “You don’t know where you’re going to get it from, and we had guys coming at them from all different angles. … To be able to have multiple guys clicking is just a really fortunate situation.”
Through six games this season, Bona is now 2-3-1 and up next is its first Atlantic 10 fixture on the calendar, an away game at Duquesne. Luckily, according to Giordano, a win of this magnitude has the capability to spur the team onward as conference opponents are now laying in wait.
“It’s about making sure we believe in what we can do and how we can continue to get on the front foot,” Giordano said. “We’ve done well on the statistical side of things. We had some good performances and some results didn’t go our way. As we go to a very good Duquesne, now we’ve seen what happens when we get everything clicking, when we all buy-in, when we all have the energy, when we all sort out small details. … Now, we keep going and we make sure we carry momentum forward.”
St. Bonaventure will kick off at Duquesne on Sept. 14 at 5 p.m.
