Sacred Heart Enjoying Best Stretch Since 1996

It looks like things have flipped in a hurry at Sacred Heart, the last undefeated team in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play after pummeling LIU 17-6 last weekend.

In truth, the Pioneers are thriving largely because they’ve made things look the same nearly every day.

There are no fancy explanations for Sacred Heart (7-4, 5-0 MAAC) as it takes a five-game winning streak — the program’s longest in a single season since 1996 — into Saturday’s home finale against Wagner. It’s about fundamentals and achieving a steady level of play.

“We can control how hard we play and that’s what we’ve been focusing on more than ever before since I've ever coached in my entire life,” Pioneers coach Jon Basti said. “The guys have really latched onto that mindset, so they know if our effort and our compete level is high and our energy level, there’s a good chance we’re going to be successful. If that means we have more goals at the end of the day, then we do. And if it doesn’t, well, how can we learn to get better for next week?”

Sacred Heart has never been to the NCAA tournament, but Basti led it to winning records in both 2017 and 2019. But the Pioneers struggled in the pandemic era and found themselves on a 12-game skid spanning 2022 and 2023 by the middle of last season.

But there were glimmers of hope. Sacred Heart played Stony Brook and Drexel tough to close out nonconference play, then were competitive against Siena and Manhattan to open MAAC play. It was enough to show the Pioneers weren’t too far away.

Then they won five of their next eight, securing a spot in the conference tournament. The five victories matched their combined total from the three previous years.

“We thought we had a pretty good end of the year last year, winning five games in conference,” Basti said. “We were like, ‘We had a good year and think about how hard we worked. We have to work just a little bit harder next year if we want to get better.’ So I think they took that to the next level.”

Sacred Heart has done it with sound play across the board, a reflection of the program’s commitment to fundamentals. The Pioneers are 13th nationally in clearing percentage (88.9 percent). Primary faceoff man Luke Romanek has won 57 percent of his draws. Alex Pazienza owns a 56.3 save percentage, up a tick from the 56.1 mark he posted in league play last season.

On offense, there are already eight 10-goal scorers, including freshman midfielder James Moran delivering 12 during the winning streak. Moran played sparingly in nonconference play but earned his way into the lineup with his practice effort.

Leading the offense is senior attackman Morgan O’Reilly, who opened the season with seven goals and two assists against Stony Brook and has 33 goals and five assists for the year.

“We know he’s going to be there and he’s going to show up and play,” Basti said. “We know his mentality is pretty consistent. We know what we’re going to get from him every game and we know where he’s going to be and what he’s going to do. That consistency and being able to lean on that just from his approach to things is pretty awesome and he’s a very calming influence on the rest of the offense.”

That’s an asset on any team, but a particularly important example with the philosophy Basti espouses — the classic “control the controllables.” Like any program, the Pioneers are at the whim of opponents, referees, weather and injuries to varying degrees but hold only so much influence over those variables.

But they do have a say in how they handle anything and how much they think they can achieve. And it’s on that front that Sacred Heart has acquired some of its greatest strength while surging to the top of the MAAC.

“The more we can give these guys the power of belief, the more success they’re going to want to have because they believe they can have it simply by working hard,” Basti said.