Box l Updated stats
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Junior Kyle McLean tallied a career-high five goals to lead host Nazareth to a 19-9 victory over Hartwick in an Empire 8 men's lacrosse game Saturday afternoon. The Golden Flyers pulled away from the Hawks with a balanced offensive attack as 12 different Nazareth players found the back of the net with their shots.

With the victory, 11th-ranked Nazareth improves to 9-2 overall and 4-0 in conference games. Hartwick drops to 3-6 overall and 0-4 in Empire 8 contests. Nazareth and 13th-ranked St. John Fisher are the only remaining teams in the Empire 8 with undefeated conference records. The Golden Flyers host the Cardinals April 21st, after traveling to Ithaca for another critical conference game against the Bombers April 17th.

Junior Joe Valasiadis opened the game with an unassisted goal 1:34 into the first quarter to put the Golden Flyers on the board. After a goal from Hartwick's Brandon Wilk, senior Mark DeCirce scored two goals, which were sandwiched around a goal by the Hawks' Brandon Murtha to give Nazareth a 3-2 lead. Freshman Brian Wright extended the Golden Flyers' lead to two goals with about a minute remaining in the quarter as Nazareth converted its first extra-man opportunity.

Seventeen seconds into the second quarter, Harry Hughes cut Hartwick's deficit to one goal with a man-up score for the Hawks, but Nazareth answered with four consecutive goals to take an 8-3 lead with 6:49 to play in the half. Back-to-back faceoff victories resulted in the first two goals of the run as McLean and senior Kyle Brown each scored in a span of 13 seconds. Junior Scott Castle and senior Cory Bottiglier then followed with unassisted goals.

Wilk scored with 6:11 to play in the half to cut Hartwick's deficit to four goals, but McLean controlled the ensuing faceoff and scored his second goal of the game 12 seconds later. The Hawks' Kevin Miller scored his first goal of the season to cut Nazareth's lead to 9-5 with 5:36 to play, but Brown controlled the ground ball on the following faceoff and found McLean, who scored his third goal of the game. Junior Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar closed the half with an unassisted goal in the final minute to give the Golden Flyers an 11-5 advantage at halftime.

About five minutes into the third quarter freshman Jimmy Gaffney tallied his second goal of the season after receiving a pass from sophomore #C.J. Estes#. Matt Landry tried to keep the Hawks close with a goal to cut Nazareth's lead to six goals midway through the quarter.

The Golden Flyers', however, secured their victory with six unanswered goals spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter. Bottiglier tallied his second score of the game, followed by a man-up goal from DeCirce to give Nazareth a 14-6 lead going into the final quarter. McLean scored his fourth and fifth goals of the game in the first 2:06 of the fourth quarter, his goals sandwiched around a goal from senior Kurt Detwiler. Estes added a goal with 12:30 to play in the game for the Golden Flyers' to give Nazareth an 18-6 lead. Nazareth's offense found the back of the net four times in the first 2:30 of the quarter.

Hartwick's Ian Putnam, Hughes, and Dave Aitchison each scored midway through the quarter to cut Nazareth's lead to 18-9. Senior John Mannion scored Nazareth's final goal with 5:56 to play to give the Golden Flyers' the final 10-goal victory.

Senior Todd Dermody started in net for Nazareth and was credited with five saves and allowed six goals. Sophomore Grant Williams played the final 12:30 in goal for the Golden Flyers and allowed three goals and made four saves. Ryan Twardowski made a game-high 15 saves for the Hawks. Carl Lengel played the final 3:46 of the game in goal for Hartwick, but was not forced to make a save.

Nazareth finished with advantages in shots (51-31), ground balls (46-27), and faceoffs (20-10). McLean won 11 of 17 faceoffs and also finished with a game-high six ground balls. Brown had a game-high four caused turnovers for the Golden Flyers.