ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Sophomore attackman Collin Clark scored three goals and midfielders John McDonnell and Trevar Haefele each scored twice for Nazareth Saturday as the Golden Flyers secured their first men's lacrosse victory of the season with an 8-3 triumph over Geneseo.
The game, played at Monroe Community College's DiMarco Field, featured high wind gusts of up to 50 mph. Nazareth, however, was able to blow Geneseo away with a four-goal burst over the final 15 minutes after settling for tenuous quarter leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2. Nazareth is 1-1 overall, while Geneseo dropped to 0-2.
Haefele, a sophomore middie, scored Nazareth's first goal off a pass from freshman NIck Loscalzo less than five minutes into the opening quarter. The score went unchanged until the closing seconds of the quarter. Senior C.J. Estes, cradling near the endline, fed the crease with a desperation pass that McDonnell caught and converted a behind-the-back shot with just :01 left in the period to make the score 2-0.
Geneseo converted a man-up goal early in the second quarter, but Nazareth answered less than two minutes later on a goal by freshman Will Fallo with Estes assisting again. Geneseo scored again early in the third quarter to slice Nazareth's lead to 3-2, but the Golden Flyers scored the next five goals to pull away.
Clark's first goal came unassisted with 5:49 left in the third quarter and put Nazareth up 4-2. In the fourth quarter, McDonnell scored for the second time with Fallo picking up the assist. An unassisted goal by Haefele expanded the lead to 6-2 with 6:24 left. Clark then closed out the scoring by scoring two goals just 10 seconds apart.
The first goal came off a pass from Estes, who delivered his third assist of the game. Sophomore Mark Pinski won the ensuing faceoff and assisted on Clark's third goal of the game, a high left-handed finish that beat Geneseo goalie Michael Greubel with 1:59 to go.
The game was even statistically with each team taking 30 shots and collecting 29 ground balls. Each team also won seven faceoffs. Estes had a team-best five ground balls for Nazareth, while Pinski and freshman defenseman Vincent Parrillo each had four. Junior goalie Tim Doyle played all 60 minutes and made 13 saves.