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ELMIRA, N.Y. -- Visiting Nazareth used a 9-1 scoring burst in the second quarter Saturday to break open a close game and the Golden Flyers went on to defeat Elmira, 20-8, in an Empire 8 Conference game for men's lacrosse.

Nazareth, ranked 12th nationally, boosted its overall record to 7-2 and its conference mark to 2-0. Elmira dropped to 4-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

Leading 3-2 after the first 15 minutes, Nazareth scored eight straight goals to open the second quarter to pull away. The Golden Flyers led 12-3 at halftime and 16-6 after three quarters. Senior attackman Mark DeCirce led Nazareth with four goals and one assist and junior Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar scored once and added a career-high six assists. Junior Scott Castle and sophomore #C.J. Estes also contributed three goals each. Freshmen Jimmy Gaffney and Brian Wright# each scored their first career goal.

With the score 3-2, Nazareth scored four times in less than four minutes to open the third quarter. Midfielder Cory Bottiglier and DeCirce each scored unassisted goals. Then DeCirce scored off a pass from Joe Valasiadis. Senior longstick Kyle Brown then added his third goal of the season just 17 seconds later to make the score 7-2.

Senior Kurt Detwiler delivered his second goal of the game with 8:42 left in the half to run the score to 8-2 and Valasiadis added his first goal of the season to make it 9-2. Estes, Jacobs-Ferderbar and DeCirce closed out the first-half scoring for the Golden Flyers.

Jacobs-Ferderbar had three assists in the third quarter as Nazareth scored four more times, including Gaffney's goal and a goal from sophomore midfielder John McDonnell. Castle then scored twice in the fourth quarter, sandwiched between goals by Adam Nauerth and Wright.

Nazareth had advantages in shots (57-21), ground balls (48-27) and face-offs (19-12). Junior Kyle McLean went 9 for 15 on face-offs and junior #R.J. Gringeri# was 10 for 14. Estes and Castle each had six ground balls and DeCirce had five.

Nazareth plays again Wednesday at Utica at 4 p.m.