Black Bears add pair of College-signees

BINGHAMTON- The Binghamton Black Bears are proud to announce the next two college-signees for the 2024-25 season.  Goaltender CJ Hapward and forward Anthony Bernardo have agreed to terms to finish the season with the Black Bears. 

Anthony is a 24-year-old forward that has played the last four season at nearby SUNY-Cortland.  In those four years with the Red Dragons, Bernardo appeared in 104 games, registering 25 goals and 31 assists.  Bernardo scored the game-winning goal in the 2024 SUNYAC championship game that sent Cortland to the NCAA DIII tournament.  Before his time at Cortland, Anthony spent multiple seasons in the P.A.L Islanders organization, across multiple leagues.  Anthony is a native of Hauppauge, NY and has a right-handed shot standing at 5'11" 180 lbs.

CJ is a native of West Caldwell, NJ, where he played most of his youth and junior hockey.  The newest Black Bears goaltender appeared in five seasons of NCAA hockey, including three years at Colby College and the final two at Suffix University.  In his most recent season, Hapward posted a 1.99 GAA and SV% of .931.  Across all five seasons at the NCAA DIII level, CJ has had a SV% of at least .911 or higher.  Hapward becomes the Black Bears first ever goalie collegiate-signee.  

Bernardo and Hapward become the third and fourth collegiate-signees of the season, joining Darion Benchich and Richard Colarusso.  All of the previous mentioned players do not count towards the Black Bears 19-man active roster.