Nazareth routs Houghton, 23-0
Host Nazareth dominated Houghton 23-0 in a non-conference men's lacrosse game on Tuesday. The Highlanders, a provisional member of the Empire 8, compete against the teams in the conference, but the games are not included in the conference standings. The Golden Flyers outscored Houghton 15-0 in the first quarter and stretched their lead to 22-0 with seven goals in the second quarter. Nazareth only took two shots in the second half and none in the fourth quarter. Sophomore
Dan O'Brien, who tallied three goals, had the Golden Flyers' lone third quarter goal. Nazareth's offensive attack featured 13 different goal scorers.
With the victory, the Golden Flyers improve to 8-8 overall. Following the loss, the Highlanders stand at 0-14 overall. Tuesday's game was the first shutout for the men's lacrosse team in school history. Nazareth closes the regular season on Saturday when the Golden Flyers host St. John Fisher in a critical Empire 8 game at 2 p.m. With a win over the Cardinals, Nazareth would likely earn the second seed and host a conference semifinal game against Fisher on April 30th. With a loss, the Golden Flyers would likely fall to the third seed and travel to Fisher for the semifinal game. Ithaca is currently first with a 5-0 conference record, and Stevens is fourth with a 3-2 Empire 8 record. The Empire 8 championship is May 3rd at the highest remaining seed.
Against Houghton, sophomore
Troy Haefele amassed four goals, followed by O'Brien's three goals. Seniors
Trevar Haefele and
Jeff Sabitus, sophomore
Luke Wooters, and freshmen
Joe Eiskant and
Kyle Lai each recorded two goals. Senior
Collin Clark, junior
Will Fallo, sophomore
Vincent Loscalzo, and freshmen
Hunter Burdick,
Robert Haggerty, and
Nick Arnold each had one goal. The Golden Flyers' attempted to score after completing multiple passes on their possessions. Nazareth was credited with 18 assists on their 23 goals. Sophomore
Connor McKercher had a team-high four assists, followed by three assists apiece by Fallo and Wooters. Eiskant and
Trevar Haefele each added a pair of assists, while Clark, Fanning, and freshmen
Alex Ballatori and
Luke Longo each collected one assist.
Clark opened the scoring 1:03 into regulation, then Nazareth scored five additional goals in the next 3:01 to take command of the game in the opening minutes. With his goal, Clark has 96 goals in his career. With four more goals, Clark would become the 13th player in team history to tally 100 goals in his career.
The Golden Flyers used a methodical offense in the second quarter, adding seven more goals on a total of 11 shots. In the third quarter, Nazareth took only two shots, with one goal. Throughout the second half, the Golden Flyers maintained possession and chose to take stalling turnovers instead of attacking the Houghton goal. The third and fourth quarters also featured a running clock.
Even with slowing its offense after the first quarter, Nazareth finished with overwhelming advantages in shots (42-3), ground balls (43-6), and faceoffs won (23-4).
Nazareth sophomore
Scott Brown started the game and played the opening 15 minutes to earn the victory. Brown did not face any shots from the Highlanders. Freshman
Michael Cuciti played the final three quarters between the Golden Flyers' pipes and finished with three saves.
Joshua Haingray played the opening half in Houghton's net and was credited with nine saves and 22 goals against. Gabriel Browning played the second half and was credited with one save and one goal against.