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ITHACA, N.Y. – Visiting Nazareth dug a cavernous first-quarter hole against Ithaca Wednesday in the first round of the Empire 8 Conference Tournament for men's lacrosse. Trailing 7-1 after the first 15 minutes, the third-seeded Golden Flyers could not recover in a season-ending 15-11 defeat to the second-seeded Bombers.
 
Nazareth closed its season with an overall record of 8-9. Ithaca improved to 12-5 overall and will play in Sunday's championship game at Stevens at 1 p.m. with a chance to qualify for the NCAA Division III Tournament. Stevens defeated St. John Fisher, 11-5, in the other first-round game.
 
Freshman Kyle Fanning scored three goals for the Golden Flyers. Sophomore Collin Clark and senior #C.J. Estes# each scored twice. Jay Lucas scored four times for the Bombers, who defeated Nazareth for the second time this season. Estes' two goals gave him 27 for the season and 117 for his career.

Ithaca possessed the ball for much of the first quarter and used a decisive 18-3 shooting advantage to build a commanding lead and leave the Golden Flyers somewhat shellshocked. Lucas scored twice, while Andrew Kristy, Brian DiBetta, Pat Slawta, Matt Greenblatt and Tom Mongelli each scored once. Long-stick defender Tucker Sampson scored Nazareth's lone goal.
 
Nazareth battled back and made it interesting by outscoring Ithaca 6-4 in the third quarter and then scoring the first two goals of the fourth quarter to close within 13-11 with 12:34 to go. The Golden Flyers, however, didn't score again while Ithaca scored twice more in the final four minutes to seal the win.

After taking its 7-1 lead, Ithaca also scored the first goal of the second quarter to go up 8-1, before Nazareth gradually worked its way back. Goals by Fanning and Estes closed the gap to 8-3, but Ithaca regained its seven-goal cushion, 10-3, by scoring the last goal of the first half -- by James Manilla with 2:10 left -- and the first goal of the second -- by Slawta.

Nazareth steadily built momentum and worked its way back as Fanning scored twice in the third quarter while Nate DeLone, Brian Wright, Estes and Clark also scored. Clark and freshman Nick Loscalzo each scored within a minute early in the fourh quarter to make the score 13-11, but Ithaca was able to control the ball for a good chunk of the final 12 minutes and used late goals from DiBetta (with 4:05 left) and Lucas (with :09 left) to seal the deal.

Ithaca had advantages in shots (44-34) and ground balls (41-34), while Nazareth won 15 faceoffs to Ithaca's 14. Nazareth freshman Drew Simoneau won 10 of 20 faceoffs and had six ground balls. Freshman defenseman Jerry Chasteen had five ground balls.

Junior Tim Doyle started in goal for Nazareth, but was pulled in favor of Rob Olin after making three saves and allowing five goals in the first 12 minutes. Olin made 10 saves over the final 48 minutes.