BOXSCORE |
CUMULATIVE STATSSCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Senior
Aaron Civalier and sophomore
Erinn O'Hara each scored four goals and sophomore goalie
Todd Dermody made 17 saves Thursday for Nazareth as the visiting Golden Flyers overwhelmed Union in men's lacrosse 15-5.
The victory, in the semifinals of the ECAC Upstate Tournament, boosted fourth-seeded Nazareth's overall record to 9-6 and advanced the Golden Flyers to Sunday's championship game. The Golden Flyers will visit second-seeded RIT at 12 p.m. The Tigers defeated St. John Fisher 16-6 in Thursday's other semifinal.
"I thought we played well at both ends," said Nazareth Coach Rob Randall. "Union is a good team and they had a lot of opportunities, but Todd (Dermody) was a big difference for us."
Nazareth, idle since April 22, won Thursday's game with surprising ease against the top-seeded Dutchmen, who finish their best season ever with a record of 12-5. The Golden Flyers never trailed as they scored three of the four first-quarter goals and went on to extend that advantage to 8-2 by halftime.
Union scored the first goal of the second half, but Nazareth pulled away by outscoring the Dutchmen 5-1 in the fourth quarter.
Civalier scored all four of his goals in the first half as Nazareth took control. O'Hara had goals in both the first and second quarters and Dermody made 10 of his saves in the first 30 minutes. Freshman
Matt Morrissey also had a goal as did sophomore
Mark DeCirce.
Union closed to within 8-3 on a goal by Chris Collison early in the third quarter, but Nazareth answered with goals by
Matt Aloi and DeCirce to go up 10-3 and the Golden Flyers were never seriously challeneged thereafter.
O'Hara added two more goals in the fourth quarter, while Aloi,
Mark Kanellis and
Joe Valasiadis also contributed.
Nazareth had a 42-36 shooting advantage and collected 33 ground balls, led by O'Hara's eight.
Nazareth tries for its third ECAC title Sunday. The Golden Flyers also won in 1990 and 2006.