ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher College field hockey team extended its winning streak to five games on Wednesday night as the Cardinals defeated Nazareth College in conference action by a score of 7-2. With the win, the Cardinals improve to 13-4 overall on the season and 6-1 in the Empire 8, while the Golden Flyers fall to 8-10 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

With the victory, Fisher clinches a spot in the Empire 8 Conference Championship for the seventh consecutive season and fifth time under Head Coach Victoria Bothner.  

Fisher was able to get on the scoreboard first in the rivalry affair as Reghan Amoroso found the back of the net off of a feed from Bre Socker on the Cardinal's fourth shot of the game, for her first goal of the season.

Five minutes later just after the 16 minute-mark, Socker was able to notch her 17th goal of the 2018 season with Gianna Palma picking up the assist this time around, giving the Cardinals an early two-goal advantage.

Goalkeeper Ashley Maynard and the Fisher defense were able to keep Nazareth off of the scoreboard in the first 35 minute half, with Fisher leading in the shot category 12 to four heading into the halftime break.

It didn't take long after the opening second half whistle for Fisher to add to its lead, when senior Lauren Fazio took a pass from Alyssa Andres and put away her 19th goal of the year.  

Nazareth battled back and was able to cut the Fisher lead back to 3-1 at the 41:29 mark, beating Maynard on its first shot of the second half.

Following two consecutive Fisher penalty corners, Socker found the back of the net once again after taking a feed from Danila Casseri for her 20th of the season to put the Cardinals back up by three.  However the Fisher offense was not done there, as Lindsay Scott made it 5-1 Fisher with her second of the season, only 34 seconds after the Socker tally.

With 16:36 remaining in the second half, Fazio tallied her second of the game increasing the Fisher lead to five, with Casseri picking up her second assist as well. The Cardinal's offense kept the pressure on the Golden Flyers, finding the back of the net once more as Fazio completed her fourth career hat-trick from Jess Snyder, for her team-leading 21st goal of the year.

Nazareth was able to add a late tally, however Fisher was able to secure the win with the help of 19 total shots on goal.

Maynard took home the victory finishing with three saves and moving her record on the season to 13-4 overall.

The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday at 11 a.m for their final regular season game, when they travel to Hartwick to take on the Hawks in Empire 8 Conference action.