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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Nazareth's men's lacrosse season came to a crashing halt Friday at RIT as the Golden Flyers lost to the Tigers in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Conference Tournament, 13-7.

The loss was Nazareth's second to RIT in the last six days and likely ends the Golden Flyers' season at 12-5. RIT advances to the conference championship game Sunday at 12 p.m. against Ithaca, an upset winner over St. John Fisher, 12-11, in the other conference semifinal game. RIT defeated Nazareth, 13-8, last Saturday at Nazareth in the final regular-season conference game.

"The better team won," said Nazareth Coach Rob Randall. "They are a very athletic team and they gave us a lot of trouble clearing the ball. They made us struggle to pass and catch."

Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar and Cory Bottiglier each scored two goals for the Golden Flyers, but Nazareth was dominated by the Tigers statistically, particularly in the second half when RIT outscored Nazareth 10-5 to pull away from a 3-2 halftime lead.

RIT had advantages in shots (41-37), faceoffs (18-6) and ground balls (52-28) and Nazareth was just 20 for 30 on clears.

Up 3-2 after a grind-it-out first half, RIT scored the first three goals of the third quarter to extend its lead to 6-2. Jordan MacIntosh, Sean Gillies and David Burke had the goals. A goal by Bottiglier interrupted the string, but RIT answered with goals by Burke and Davis to extend the lead to 8-3.

Nazareth's #C.J. Estes# scored an unassisted goal with just :03 left in the third quarter, but the momentum did not carry over as RIT scored the first four goals of the fourth quarter to erase any Nazareth comeback hopes.

Jacobs-Ferderbar scored both of his goals in the fourth quarter and Mark DeCirce contributed a goal in the closing minute to give him a team-best 38 goals this season and 98 for his career.

Senior goalie Todd Dermody also played well in his final game, making 17 saves. Robert Tonnessen had 14 saves for RIT.

Davis and MacIntosh each had three goals and two assists for RIT and Gillies also scored three times for the Tigers. Jerry Ragonese took all of the Tigers' faceoffs and won 18 of 24.