The St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team defeated Empire 8 Conference opponent Utica College 11-8 on Saturday at Growney Stadium.
 
The Cardinals, who honored their seven seniors in a pre-game ceremony, improved to 7-7 overall and 4-3 in Empire 8 games on the season. Utica dropped to 2-11 overall and 1-5 in conference contests with the loss.
 
After six minutes of scoreless action, the Pioneers drew first blood as they found the back of the net with 8:42 left in the first quarter to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
 
Fisher responded with a Nick Papayanakos goal just over a minute later to tie the game at 1-1. Despite that, Utica grabbed the lead again with 5:44 remaining in the first quarter, scoring its first of four-straight goals to close out the period, resulting in a 5-1 Pioneers lead.
 
In the second quarter, the Cardinals began to find their offense as a Matthew Condon pass found Andrew Rosso, who scored a man-advantage goal less than four minutes into the quarter to make it a 5-2 game. That goal sparked a six-goal run by Fisher that included three-straight goals from Papayanakos. The run gave the Cardinals a 7-5 advantage heading into halftime.
 
The third quarter saw more Fisher offensive success as Gary Bova scored six minutes in to start the scoring in a quarter that saw the Cardinals outscore the Pioneers 4-0, giving them an 11-5 lead heading into the fourth quarter. That lead would prove to be enough for Fisher as they withheld a late push from Utica to hold on for the three-goal victory.
 
Papayanakos finished with a game-high six goals to lead the Cardinals while Rosso tallied three scores.
 
Bova and Condon each had a goal and two assists in the contest.
 
Tanner Swan started in net for Fisher and made 11 saves to move to 6-7 as a starting goalie this season.
 
Fisher will return to action at 7 p.m. on Tuesday for its final home game of the season as it takes on Hamilton College from Growney Stadium.