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PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Nazareth's late fourth quarter run fell just short as St. John Fisher defeated the visiting Golden Flyers 13-12 Wednesday afternoon in a key Empire 8 Conference men's lacrosse matchup. The loss marks the first time Nazareth has ever been beaten by their East-Avenue rival. Nazareth had won six previous meetings.

Fisher juniors Dave Malone and Chris Schmidt led the Cardinals with three points apiece. Both players had two goals and one assist. The victory was the third straight for the Cardinals who improved to 12-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

Nazareth was led offensively by freshman #C.J. Estes and junior Erinn O'Hara#, who had three goals apiece and finished with four points. Junior Mark DeCirce also contributed four points for the Golden Flyers with two goals and two assists.  The loss drops Nazareth to 6-5 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

Schmidt put Fisher on the board just seven seconds into the game off a face-off win from senior Dave Wood, who won 24 of 28 draws and had 16 ground balls.

Nazareth responded quickly tying the game, but Fisher would build up a 4-1 lead with about seven minutes left in the quarter.  Nazareth was able to close the gap before the end of the first quarter to 4-3, off goals from Estes and O'Hara, who scored with less than a second left to play.

Nazareth could only find the back of the net once in the second quarter as DeCirce scored one of his two goals to bring the score to 5-4. Fisher would dominate the rest of the half scoring the last three goals to increase their lead to 8-4.

A slashing penalty early in the third quarter by senior Nick Lucarelli gave Fisher the man advantage and Malone capitalized to increase their lead 9-4. The rest of the quarter was back and forth as both teams would end up scoring four goals, bringing the score to 12-8 heading into the final quarter.

Fisher scored their 13th and final goal of the game just 54 seconds into the fourth quarter off the stick of freshman Connor Henderson with the assist to sophomore Ryan Schmidt.

Nazareth stormed back to score four unanswered goals, including an extra-man goal by Estes with 6:18 left to draw Nazareth to within 13-11. Less than two minutes later, Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar converted a pass from DeCirce to bring Nazareth to within a goal.

The Golden Flyers recorded nine shots in the in the last four minutes of the game, including a great look from freshman Greg Wagner with nine seconds left in the game, Fisher goalie Jon Cortina made three of his 14 saves in the final 1:47.

Nazareth held a 53-29 advantage in shots, but only Fisher had a 36-34 ground ball advantage, thanks largely to Wood's work on face-offs. 

Nazareth will return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. as they host Stevens in a key Empire 8 Conference game.