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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Staring at a 6-6 record and licking multiple wounds following a 20-10 home-field drubbing at the hands of Stevens on April 19, Nazareth's men's lacrosse playoff hopes were officially on life support.
Making the NCAA Division III Tournament seemed like an afterthought as the Golden Flyers were overcome by a sense of urgency just to make their own Empire 8 Conference Tournament.
Now, five wins later, the Golden Flyers are 11-6 overall and returning to the NCAAs Wednesday for the 18th time in their history and will travel to Canton, N.Y. for a first-round match-up with Liberty League champion St. Lawrence (12-3) at 5 p.m. What a difference two weeks can make.
"It's a credit to our players that we continued to believe," said Nazareth Coach Rob Randall, who has guided the Golden Flyers to six NCAA tournaments in nine seasons as coach. "The easy thing would have been to pack it in, but our guys continued to work hard."
None harder, perhaps, than junior goalie
Todd Dermody (Newfield HS/Selden, NY), whose play became so inconsistent that he was benched for the start of the Stevens game. He's been a key to the Golden Flyers' recent success and was selected as the E8 Tournament MVP after amassing 26 saves in tournament wins over Ithaca (13-12 in overtime) and St. John Fisher (9-4).
As champions of the Empire 8 Conference, Nazareth gained an automatic berth to 22-team field, marking their 18th tournament berth in 24 seasons. St. Lawrence gained its berth by winning the Liberty League with a 15-6 win over Clarkson in the tournament final.
Wednesday's winner advanced to a second-round game Saturday at Middlebury, Vt. (13-2) at 1 p.m. The championship game is May 24 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
GETTING THERE: Nazareth was ranked as high as 12th in the weekly United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll earlier in the season, but dropped out of the rankings after losing consecutive games to Ithaca, St. John Fisher and Stevens in mid-April. The Golden Flyers scored a key 12-10 win at RIT April 25 to secure the fourth and final playoff spot in the Empire 8. They followed that with road wins at third-ranked Ithaca (13-12 in overtime) and at St. John Fisher (9-4) to win the conference title for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: Dermody's recent play in goal has spearheaded the Golden Flyers' recent surge. He had 19 saves in the overtime win at Ithaca and seven (while allowing a season-low four goals) at Fisher. He has lowered his goals-against average to 9.89 and raised his save percentage to .545. . . Junior attackman
Mark DeCirce (Binghamton HS/Binghamton, NY) delivered the overtime game-winner at Ithaca with :29 left and, despite being shut out at Fisher, leads the team in scoring with 54 points on 39 goals and 15 assists. Next is sophomore attackman
Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar (Orchard Park HS/Orchard Park, NY) with 53 points on 34 goals, 19 assists, then freshman attackman
C.J. Estes (Hebron Academy/Medfield, Mass.) with 45 points on 31 goals, 14 assists. . . Junior
Erinn O'Hara (Salisbury School/Camillus, NY), a starter at attack the past two seasons, moved to midfield in 2009 and is Nazareth's top offensive threat there with 35 points on 26 goals, 9 assists. Sophomore
Scott Castle (Skaneateles HS/Skaneateles, NY) with 19 goals, 11 assists and junior
Mike Cummings (Elmira Notre Dame/Elmira, N.Y.) with 17 goals, 5 assists round out the first midfield line. . . Sophomore
R.J. Gringeri (Geneva, NY) took all 17 face-offs against Fisher and was an integral part of the Nazareth's success by winning 10. He's won 76 of 163 (.466) for the season. . . Senior
Alex Cole (Indian Hill HS/Cincinnati, OH) is a short-stick defensive specialist who leads the team with 70 ground balls. Junior
Kyle Brown (Catonsville HS/Baltimore, MD) is the long-stick specialist and has contributed 5 goals and 2 assists with 41 ground balls. . . Close defense starters are senior
Nick Lucarelli (Elmira Notre Dame HS/Elmira, NY) and sophomores
Brian Orr (Malden Catholic/Medford, Mass.) and
Mitchel Frey (Moeller HS/Terrace Park, Ohio)/
HEAD COACH ROB RANDALL: A native of Irondequoit, Rob Randall is in his ninth season with the Golden Flyers and has a 115-35 record (.767), including this season's 11-6 mark. He has been named Empire 8 Conference Coach of the Year three times (2001, 2003 and 2007). Nazareth has reached the NCAAs six times under Randall's direction and make a championship game appearance in 2004, falling 13-9 to Salisbury.
Randall was head coach for one season at Geneseo and for four seasons at Sacred Heart in Connecticut before joining the Nazareth staff in 2001. He also served as an assistant coach at Army for three seasons.
As a player, Randall was a starting attackman and Offensive MVP of Nazareth's 1987 team that finished with a record of 8-5 in just its second season of intercollegiate play.
NAZARETH IN THE NCAAs: Nazareth is making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and its sixth in nine seasons under head coach Rob Randall. Nazareth won national titles in 1992, 1996 and 1997 and finished second in 1995, 1998 and 2004. Nazareth is 26-14 overall in tournament play.
ST. LAWRENCE 15, NAZARETH 10: The Saints knocked off Nazareth, 15-10, in a game played March 16 at the Episcopal School of Dallas during spring break. The loss was the first of the season for the Golden Flyers, who had risen to 12th in the national rankings before traveling to Texas. It was St. Lawrence's first-ever men's lacrosse victory over the Golden Flyers in 11 tries. Senior attackman Pate Carroll scored five goals for St. Lawrence and senior P.J. Santora won 20 of 26 face-offs. For Nazareth, Erinn O'Hara scored four goals and C.J. Estes had three.