ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The nationally-ranked St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team edged its winning streak to three games on Saturday as the Cardinals, who are ranked fifth in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll, picked up a 20-14 win over rival Nazareth College at Golden Flyer Stadium.  With the win, Fisher improved to 8-1 and 1-0 in its Empire 8 debut while Nazareth slipped to 3-6, 0-1, respectively.

The Golden Flyers were quick to claim the momentum in the opening quarter as the home team jumped out to a quick 2-1 goal with five minutes gone by. 

The Cardinals, however, would recover and closed out the frame with back-to-back goals from Jack Mulvihill and Jordan Depetres to take a one-goal cushion into the second.

Leading 4-3 with a fresh 15 minutes on the clock, Fisher began to build some breathing room with three unanswered goals including a man-up tally from Tucker O'Donnell to open up a 7-3 advantage.

After giving one back, the Cardinals continued to keep their foot on the gas and outscored their host, 3-1, over the final 5:15 to take a 10-5 edge into halftime.

Coming out of the break, Nazareth went on the offensive and cut the gap to four with back-to-back tallies to make it 11-7 in Fisher's favor.

From there, both teams traded scores down the stretch until a goal from O'Donnell followed by another man-up score from Mulvihill staked the Cardinals to a 16-10 lead with the fourth quarter still to be played.

Holding a six-goal margin, Fisher saw the lead dwindle to four with under four minutes showing on the clock, but head coach Dave Dobbins' squad regrouped and closed out the game with three of the final four goals to secure its first conference win of the year.

O'Donnell scored seven points in the win including three goals while Nicholas Miller, who was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List on Friday, provided two goals and a game-high five assists in the win.  Ian Evans scored twice and assisted on three others to go along with two ground balls and a pair of caused turnovers while Jacob Gallina and Depetres each finished with a hat trick for Fisher.

At X, Joe Post was 24-for-34 with a game-high 12 ground balls.

In goal, Ben Hammond came away with 13 saves over 60 minutes to move to 8-1 on the year.

The Cardinals will face another tough non-conference opponent at 7 p.m. on Wednesday as No. 7 Union College comes calling inside Growney Stadium.