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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Senior Brooke Sullivan scored three goals and senior Ashley Kirch shined in goal with eight big saves for host Nazareth Saturday as the Golden Flyers scored a mild women's lacrosse upset by defeating 17th-ranked St. John Fisher, 9-6.

Nazareth improved to 7-2 overall and 2-0 in the Empire 8. Fisher, which had beaten Nazareth six straight times and had eliminated the Golden Flyers from the last two E8 Tournaments, dropped to 6-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

Sophomore Kate Rothrock had one goal and three assists and senior Bri Mancini also scored twice. Freshman Haley DeVona, junior Carly Gates and senior Suzie Gray also scored for the Golden Flyers.

Sullivan scored just 53 seconds into the game for a 1-0 Nazareth lead, but Fisher's Lindsey Shoales countered less than three minutes later to tie the score at 1-1. Neither team scored over the next 15 minutes, then Nazareth erupted for four straight goals over a stretch of nine minutes to take control. DeVona scored off an assist from Rothrock with 11:41 left in the half and Rothrock assisted again on a goal by Mancini five minutes later. Goals by Sullivan and Gray put Nazareth ahead 5-1, before Fisher interrupted the string on a goal by Jordan Johnson with 1:30 left.

Rothrock then made a great individual effort to score an unassisted goal just before time expired in the first half to put Nazareth on top 6-2 at the break.

Fisher's Kennedy Frink scored the first two goals of the second half as the Cardinals closed within 6-4. Mancini, though, answered for Nazareth just 30 seconds after Frink's second goal as Rothrock gained her third assist of the game. Less than two minutes after that, Sullivan scored her third goal of the game to enable Nazareth to regain its four-goal lead. Gates then scored on a free-position shot just two minutes after Sullivan to give Nazareth its largest lead at 9-4.

Fisher scored the next two goals, but the game went scoreless over the last 10 minutes as Nazareth prevailed. Nazareth's defense, spearheaded by seniors MacKenzie Haley and Hannah Prince, junior Kayla McKay and freshman Erin States, limited the Cardinals to just two shots over the last 10 minutes -- both of which were saved by Kirch, who caused the Cardinals to go 0-for-8 on free-position attempts with four saves.

Nazareth outshot Fisher 23-19, but Fisher had a 15-13 edge in ground balls. Nazareth won nine draws to Fisher's seven with Sullivan accounting for four wins.

Nazareth plays again Friday against Elmira at 4 p.m. at Corning Community College.