PITTSFORD, N.Y. – The St. John Fisher men's lacrosse team won its sixth consecutive Empire 8 Conference championship on Saturday with a 21-10 victory over East Avenue rival Nazareth at Growney Stadium.
The top-seeded Cardinals (15-4), who've beaten Nazareth in five straight conference title games, punched their ticket to the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Tournament with the victory. Nazareth, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, finished its season 13-6 overall and lost its 14th straight game to Fisher.
The Empire 8 named St. John Fisher senior attacker Brady Mason the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Over two games, he amassed 15 points on 12 goals and three assists. He led the Cardinals with six goals in Saturday's contest.
The Cardinals came out firing on all cylinders, scoring five unanswered goals in the first seven minutes. Junior Matt Slowinski started the scoring at the 12:50 mark, and sophomore Sean Donaldson added another 45 seconds later. Junior Brett Seaman scored to make it 3-0 before Donaldson buried his second goal of the game less than 30 seconds later at the 11:03 mark.
Mason capped the game-opening 5-0 run, finding the back of the net on a feed from senior Braeden McNeill.
The Golden Flyers responded with three quick goals to make it 5-3, but any momentum they had vanished quickly. Fisher ran away from Nazareth with 11 unanswered goals, a run that began at the end of the first quarter and ran through the start of the third.
Senior Ethan Kesselring had three goals in that game-deciding stretch, while Mason had two. Donaldson, Seaman, freshman JP Revitte, sophomore Robbie Salit, senior Reed Currie and fifth-year senior Jordan Leuze contributed with one goal apiece.
Mason scored three of the Cardinals' seven second-half goals. Seaman, Kesselring, Salit and sophomore Carter Van Holland netted one.
Junior goalkeeper Tyler Manning made 15 saves in the contest, and the Cardinals' defense caused 14 turnovers. Senior defender Jack Cornell and freshman defender Garrin Dougherty each caused two.
Game Notes
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The Cardinals are 5-1 in title games and 6-2 overall in postseason contests against Nazareth.
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Fisher has won 14 consecutive games against the Golden Flyers.
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The Cardinals have won 46 straight games against Empire 8 teams.
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The Cardinals have won 12 consecutive Empire 8 postseason games.
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Head coach Dave Dobbins needs one more victory to reach 100 for his career.
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Mason's 133 career goals place him sixth on Fisher's all-time goals list. His 54 goals this season are the fifth most by a player in program history.
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Mason has 199 career points, the fifth most in Fisher history.
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Fifth-year senior Timmy Salit tallied a team-high three assists to pull even with Dave Malone (117 assists, 2007-10) for second on Fisher's all-time assists list.
Up Next
The Cardinals will watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show as a team on Sunday. It will air live on NCAA.com at 9 p.m.
