PITTSFORD, N.Y. - The St. John Fisher University men's lacrosse team competed against Nazareth College at home on Saturday for their last regular season match up. Prior to the start of the game, the Cardinals celebrated their seniors and their contributions to the program. After being up 9-4 at halftime, the Cardinals finished strong and won by a 17-9 final score. With this win, the Cardinals will enter the Empire 8 tournament as the No. 1 seed and are the 2023 Empire 8 Regular Season Champions. Fisher now holds an 8-9 overall record and are 7-0 in conference play, while Nazareth is 9-8 overall and are now 5-2 in conference play.
As the first quarter began, the Cardinals got off to a fast start. Jack Cornell picked up the loose ball off the face-off and got it into the offensive end. Jacob Gallina taking it to cage hard, gets the first goal of the game just 50 seconds in. Ben Hammond with a save on the defensive end, gives the offensive another early opportunity. Matthew Kemmis finds Samuel Miller who stings the upper left corner, 2-0 Cardinals up. The Golden Flyers get on the board to make it 2-1. Answering right back, in the next play it is Timmy Salit, bringing the Fisher lead back up to two. With 6:58 left in the first, Keaton Piconi puts one away, assisted by Salit, to make it 4-1. Nazareth cuts the Fisher lead to two with 4:32 on the clock. Finishing out the first quarter is Brady Mason with this first of the day, assisted by Salit to bring Fisher up 5-2 heading into the second quarter.
Owen Bogue causing a Nazareth attack man to throw it out of bounds gives the Cardinals their first possession of the second. Mason capitalizes and gets his second, Fisher up 6-2. A long offensive possession by the Cardinals ends with Miller putting one in the back of the next to bring the score to 7-2. The Golden Flyers tally one to make it 7-3. With 3:48 left until half, Gallina finds Miller for his third of the day. With one minute left in the second, Connor Mesh gets on the board with a transition goal, his first of the season, assisted by Mason to bring Fisher into halftime leading 9-4.
To start out the third quarter, 30 seconds in, Tyler Edinger gets his first of the day to give Fisher their largest lead yet, 10-4. With 8:27 to go in the third, Nazareth converts on a man-up opportunity and then tallies another to make it 10-6. Mason ends the Golden Flyer momentum and brings Fisher back up by five. At the 2:52 minute mark, Ethan Kesselring capitalizes and gets a man-up goal assisted by Kemmis. Nazareth puts one away to finish out the quarter, Fisher heads into the fourth leading 12-7.
The Golden Flyers quickly put two in to cut the Cardinals lead to 12-9 in the final frame. Terrence Cleary wins the face-off and gets it into the offensive. Mason takes it hard to cage and tallies his fourth of the day. Just one minute later, Mason gets his fifth, assisted by Kemmis to make it 14-9, Fisher starting to pull away. Gallina, Edinger and Dugan Doeblin all tally one as the fourth quarter ends. The Cardinals win by a 17-9 final score.
Mason leading the way on the offensive end finishes with five goals, two assists and three ground balls. Miller with three goals, Gallina with two goals, one assist and two ground balls to help add to the offensive success. In cage, Hammond had 12 saves and nine goals allowed for a .571 save percentage. Cornell on the defensive end, finished with four caused turnovers and four caused turnovers. Brian Jantz with three ground balls and two caused turnovers. The Cardinals face-off unit went 24-for-29, Scott Reeves, Logan Grom and Christian LoCasto all contributing.
Up next for the Cardinals, the team will host the Empire 8 Championship Semi-Finals game at home on Wednesday May 3.
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