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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Nazareth scored five of six goals in the opening 11 minutes of the fourth quarter to stretch an 11-10 edge into a 16-11 lead. The Golden Flyers went on to defeat the Ducks 18-13 in the Empire 8 Conference men's lacrosse game on Saturday afternoon. Junior Dan O'Brien began the scoring run with an unassisted goal 52 seconds into the fourth. Will Fallo, Luke Wooters, Troy Haefele, and Matt McDermott each added a goal to build the Nazareth advantage.

With the victory, the Golden Flyers improve to 11-4 overall and 6-0 in conference games. The Ducks fall to 8-6 overall and 4-2 in Empire 8 games. Nazareth can clinch the top seed and the regular season conference title with a victory over Houghton on Wednesday evening. Following the Golden Flyers, Ithaca is second with a 5-1 conference record. Alfred and St. John Fisher stand in a tie with Stevens at 4-2.

Nazareth and Stevens traded scoring runs through the majority of Saturday's contest. The Golden Flyers tallied the first three goals in the opening 3:21 for the early lead. Sophomore Hunter Burdick and senior Matt McDermott scored in a 39-second span, and Haefele capped the early run with a man-up goal after receiving a pass from Wooters.

The Ducks answered with the final four goals of the period to claim a one-goal lead at the end of the first. Connor McKeon had a pair of goals in the run, including a man-up tally. Matt Ferentini and Anthony Raposo also scored.

In the second period, Nazareth answered with another three-goal run to reclaim the lead. Fallo and Haefele had a pair of man-up goals sandwiched around a Dan O'Brien's first goal of the game. McDermott and Wooters assisted on Fallo and Haefele's man-up goals, respectively. The Ducks and Golden Flyers traded the final four goals of the half to leave Nazareth ahead 8-6 at the break. Wooters had both of the Golden Flyers' goals, including a man-down goal during which he beat a pair of Ducks' defenders. It was a pivotal moment as it stretched Nazareth's lead to two goals going into the second half. Matt Ferentini and McKeon had the goals for Stevens.

Similar to the first two quarters, the Golden Flyers scored the first three goals of the stanza. Wooters tallied his 34th goal of the season 4:22 into the third, which was followed by a man-up goal by junior Matt O'Neill and an unassisted score by Fallo. Fallo's goal stretched Nazareth's lead to 11-6. Penalties whistled on the Golden Flyers allowed Stevens to crawl back into the game. Nazareth had three penalties whistled in one sequence to allow the Ducks a 6-on-3 advantage. After multiple saves by junior Scott Brown, Miachael Maroon found the back of the net. Stevens had a 6-on-4 advantage after two additional penalties were called. The Ducks added two more goals in a span of 1:22 to cut the deficit to 11-10 going into the fourth.

The Golden Flyers' seven goals in the fourth secured the victory. In addition to the goals by O'Brien, Fallo, Wooters, Haefele, and McDermott, senior A.J. Small added goal in transition and O'Neill added a man-up goal in the closing minutes.

With eight penalties called on Nazareth, Stevens finished with a 50-45 advantage in total shots, including a 26-16 advantage in the second half. The Golden Flyers held the Ducks to 3-8 on man-up chances. Nazareth, meanwhile, converted all five of its man-up opportunities. After having a less effective day against Cortland's sixth-ranked faceoff specialist on Wednesday, senior Drew Simoneau returned to dominating faceoffs and ground balls on Saturday. Simoneau won 24 of 35 draws and scooped a game-high 16 ground balls. Coming into the week, Simoneau ranked first in Divsion III with a winning percentage of .729. He also ranked first in ground balls collected per game with an average of 10.85.

Sophomore Michael Cuciti started in the Nazareth net and played the first half. He made eight saves and allowed six goals. In the second half, Brown was credited with eight saves, too, and he allowed seven goals. Kevin Rafferty took the loss for Stevens with allowing all 18 of the Golden Flyers' goals and making 10 saves.

Following its 7 p.m. game at Houghton on Wednesday, Nazareth closes the regular season at St. John Fisher on April 25th. The Empire 8 Tournament begins April 29th, and the championship is May 2nd.