Men's Soccer | 10/11/2014 4:24:00 PM

Box | Updated stats
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Visiting St. John Fisher scored three times in the first half to build an early lead and Nazareth couldn't recover as the Cardinals held on for a 4-2 men's soccer victory over the Golden Flyers in an Empire 8 Conference game at Golden Flyer Stadium.

Nazareth dropped to 3-9 overall and 1-3 in conference games. Fisher is 4-8-1 overall and 2-2 in the Empire 8.

Having scored just six times in its first 12 games, Fisher got first-half tallies from Mike Lynch, Zach Hammond and Eric Luisi to build a solid cushion. The Golden Flyers rallied to within 3-2 on second-half goals by Ryan Foley and Ben Garcia, but a Nazareth defensive mistake led to an own goal for Fisher to make the final 4-2.

Garcia's goal resulted from a scramble in front Fisher keeper Josh Klein in the 80th minute. Just 11 seconds later, Nazareth's Sam Tiffany tried to play a ball back to Nazareth keeper Nate Ripic, but he chipped the ball over his head and into the Nazareth goal for Fisher's fourth tally of the game. Foley's goal came in the 68th minute and was his team-leading fifth goal of the season and 26th of his career.

The Golden Flyers outshot Fisher 12-3 in the second half, but they couldn't overcome the early disadvantage. Klein finished with six saves for Fisher, while Ripic made four saves for Nazareth.

The Golden Flyers still have three conference games left -- Oct. 19 at home vs. Utica, Oct. 25 at Elmira and Nov. 1 at Ithaca. Nazareth plays again Tuesday against Bryant & Stratton in a non-conference game at 4 p.m.