The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team
suffered a 10-9 loss in overtime to Nazareth College on Wednesday night in a pivotal Empire 8 Conference matchup at Fisher's Growney Stadium.
With the loss, Fisher ranked No. 18 in the latest national coaches poll, falls to 9-4 overall and 1-4 in the Empire 8, while Nazareth, ranked 22nd, improves to 10-3, 6-0.
Nazareth's Trevar Haefele scored the game-winning goal 2:13 into overtime.
It was a back-and-forth game all night.
Nazareth took a 4-2 lead on two quick goals by C.J. Estes to start the second quarter. Fisher, however, answered with three straight goals – one by
Mike Cummins, one by
Ryan Schmidt and one from
Mitch Ritchie – to give the Cardinals their first lead of the day at 5-4 with just under a minute left in the half.
Nazareth, however, managed to tie the game at 5-5 with 4.4 seconds left on a Haefele's first goal of the night.
Nazareth scored the first two goals of the third quarter to take a 7-5 lead with 11:46 left in the quarter, but Fisher dominated the rest of the quarter, scoring the next four goals to take a 9-7 advantage with
Kyle Denhoff ripping a shot through traffic and into the back of the net with 10.8 seconds left in the quarter.
The Cardinals, however, failed to score again. Nazareth's Brian Wright scored his third goal of the game less than one minute into the fourth and Nate DeLone forced overtime with his goal with 6:07 remaining.
For Fisher, Ritchie finished with three goals, Schmidt added three points on two goals and one assist.
Mike Cummins scored twice, while
Jeff Wester also scored.
Mitch Bailey led the Fisher defense with seven ground balls, while holding Nazareth's Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar scoreless. Goalie
Matt McShea, who missed the last two games, stopped 11 shots.
Erich Rassow was 13-for-22 from the X with five ground balls.
Fisher will return to action at 4 p.m. on Saturday and will host Alfred University.
