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UTICA, N.Y. -- Senior
Luke Wooters equaled a school record by amassing 13 points on five goals and eight assists Wednesday and classmate
Troy Haefele added five goals and four assists as visiting Nazareth rallied past Utica for a 20-7 men's lacrosse victory at the Pioneers' Gaetano Stadium.
The Golden Flyers bounced back from Saturday's disappointing loss at Ithaca to improve to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the Empire 8. Utica dropped to 2-9 overall and 1-3 in conference games. Nazareth has now beaten Utica 16 times in 17 meetings in the overall series.
Senior
Matt O'Neill and juniors
Joe Eiskant and
Hunter Burdick each added two goals.
Nick Arnold,
Anthony Basile,
Nick Rodin and
Paul Walter also scored goals. Wooters' 13 points equals the mark held by three other Nazareth players: Bill Coons (2 goals, 11 assists vs. Hartwick in 1989), Marty Kelly (4 goals, 9 assists at St. Lawrence in 1990) and Ed Geary (4 goals, 9 assists at LeMoyne in 1995). Wooters now has 81 points on the season on 35 goals and 46 assists, while Haefele has 59 points on 33 goals and 26 assists.
Utica led 2-1 after one quarter and 4-1 early in the second quarter before Nazareth exploded to score nine straight goals in erase the deficit and go up 10-4 at the half. Nazareth added 10 more goals in the second half -- five each in the third and fourth quarters -- to pull away for the win.
The game was scoreless until midway through the first quarter when Eiskant converted an extra-man opportunity off a pass from Wooters. The Pioneers, however, then scored twice in the last five minutes of the quarter and two more times early in the second quarter to go up 4-1.
After Matthew Miller scored Utica's fourth goal, Haefele scored for Nazareth just 12 second later with an assist from Wooters, who scored just 54 seconds after that. Haefele's goal triggered a 10-goal outburst that spilled into the third quarter and ended with the Golden Flyers ahead 11-4. Haefele had three goals during the run and Burdick had both of his goals. Wooters had four of his assists and Haefele had three.
A goal by Utica's Ryan Desveaux interrupted the string, then Nazareth scored eight more in a row to extend the lead to 19-5 with 9:05 left. Wooters scored four more times during the run and Haefele scored twice -- both goals coming on extra-man opportunities.
Nazareth had a 58-26 edge in shots and a 41-25 advantage in ground balls. Nazareth also won 25 of 29 faceoffs with
Seth DeLisle accounting for 19 of 22 and
Gavin Shaner 6 of 6. DeLisle had 10 ground balls and
Luke Longo had seven. Rodin's goal in the fourth quarter was his second of the season, while the third quarter was highlighted by the first career point for long-stick
Damond Archung, who contributed an assist on a goal by Wooters.
Nazareth, ranked 18th nationally, is back home Saturday to host Hartwick at 2 p.m.