The Massachusetts men’s lacrosse team has made defeating St. Bonaventure by double-digit goals an annual tradition. UMass (9-3, 2-1 Atlantic 10) cruised to a 15-4 victory over the Bonnies (5-9, 0-3 A-10) on the back of a stout defensive showing.
Freshman goalie Owen Salanger was the star of the show on the defensive end, making 12 saves and finishing with an .857 save percentage. The early portions of the contest were much closer than the final score suggests, and Salanger’s six first quarter saves are the primary reason why. He gave up just half of the goals the Minutemen conceded, as most of the starters were benched with just under eight minutes to go. The Liverpool, New York native currently sits No. 5 in the country in save percentage and No. 7 in goals against average.
“[Salanger’s] been very consistent,” head coach Greg Cannella said. “Great demeanor. And I think defensively, the guys obviously feel comfortable playing in front of him … They made some really good stops early in the game to kind of dictate the tempo of the game, dictate where the game was going to go.”
Aiden Drunsic was UMass’ leading scorer on the afternoon, tying his single-game record of four goals. His quartet of tallies marked his third hat trick of the 2025 campaign. The junior attackman has scored at least one goal in all 12 games this season. His season total now sits at 22 goals, only behind Robbie Granara’s 30 and Trace Hogan’s 23.
St. Bonaventure won every single faceoff it attempted in the opening frame and won the ground ball battle as well. The Minutemen’s collective lockdown as a defensive unit completely neutralized these losses, as the Bonnies couldn’t get many clear looks at goal thanks to the starting defensive trio of Kyle Swanson, Matthew Petitto and Chance Cook.
Since A-10 lacrosse was founded ahead of the 2023 season, UMass has outscored St. Bonaventure by a combined 44-10. The final scores have been eerily similar, with the two prior matchups ending 15-3 and 14-3. The win puts the Minutemen into the No. 4 spot in the A-10. The top four out of six in the conference will qualify for the A-10 Championship in early May.
Inconsistency has plagued UMass this season, with a pair of losses to teams with losing records in Brown and High Point pulling the team out of the rankings on separate occasions. The bounce back victory will likely send the Minutemen back into the top 20 of Monday’s poll, considering they were the first team omitted last week.
“Very pleased,” Cannella said of his team’s response to the loss against High Point. “I kind of felt like we tailed off at the end of last week in terms of our practice effort. We had a really good practice week. And so again, we talked to those guys about trying to do everything correctly during the week, so you can go out there on the weekend and perform.”
In order to avoid a third consecutive instance of getting bounced from the rankings the week after entering them, UMass will face a difficult challenge on the road at No. 11 Richmond. The Spiders are currently No. 1 in the A-10 standings and boast an overall record of 8-3.
“We have to be dialed in, we got to be ready,” Cannella said. They’ve beaten us three times since we’ve entered the A-10, 0-3 against them, they’ll be at home. They do everything well, they defend well, they faceoff well … You’re going to have to play an excellent game overall.”
Richmond defeated the Minutemen 13-12 and 15-8 in the two 2023 editions of the matchup, with the latter coming in the conference tournament. Last season, UMass was bested at Garber Field by a score of 14-12. The 2025 variant is scheduled for April 19 at 12 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN+. The Minutemen are currently a perfect 5-0 in away games and will look to extend that record in their penultimate game of the regular season.
Cameron Pellegrino can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @cam_pellegrino.
