Top seeds St. John Fisher and Nazareth win 2021 Empire 8 Men's Lacrosse Semifinal Games

Men's Lacrosse | 5/6/2021 8:26:39 PM

No. 1 seed St. John Fisher College (10-3) and No. 2 seed Nazareth College (4-6) advanced to the 2021 Empire 8 Men's Lacrosse Championship game after earning semifinal wins on Thursday, May 6. St. John Fisher defeated No. 4 seed Keuka College, 25-3, while Nazareth earned a 13-8 win No. 3 seed Alfred University.

The Cardinals, who are ranked No. 11 in the current USILA Division III national poll, will host Nazareth in the 2021 E8 Men's Lacrosse Championship game at 12 p.m. Sunday from Growney Stadium. St. John Fisher is looking to win its second straight Empire 8 Championship and 11th overall in program history, while Nazareth is attempting to win its 11th Empire 8 title in program history and first since 2017. The winner of Sunday's game will earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

NO. 1 ST. JOHN FISHER 25, NO. 4 KEUKA 3
The Cardinals jumped out to a 17-1 lead at halftime and cruised to a 25-3 victory over No. 4 seed Keuka College in the E8 Semifinals Thursday evening.

Derek Olney scored 2:40 into the game for the Cardinals before Kasey Gallina tied the game for Keuka moments later. From there, Fisher would score the next 18 goals.

The Cardinals offense was fueled by their attention to the fundamentals. At the face off X, Joe Post, Logan Grom, and Christian LoCasto combined to go 31-for-32, with their one loss coming as result of a violation. Pairing with that was Fisher's 57-18 advantage on ground balls. That statistic alone kept possession in the home team's hands throughout the evening and marked their season-best ground ball total.
 
Nicholas Miller led the scoring charge for the Cardinals behind five goals and an assist for a total of six points in the contest. He was followed up by freshman Ty McHerron, who not only scored his first career goal, but scored two more to record his first career hat trick.
 
Ian Evans and Jordan DePetres each recorded five points with two goals and three assists each, while Derek Olney, Brennan O'Brien, Samuel Miller, and Logan Grom tacked on two goals apiece. The remaining five goals were split by Tucker O'Donnell, Tyler Edinger, Matthew Kemmis, Jordan Leuze, and Griffin Dautrich who scored the first of his young career.
 
Jack Mulvihill and Jake Riley combined for seven dimes as the Cardinals recorded a season-best 19 assists. With total 44 points, Fisher recorded the most points in a game since 2019 when they had 46 points against Elmira.

NO. 2 NAZARETH 13, NO. 3 ALFRED 8
Host and second-seeded Nazareth outscored Alfred 8-3 in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Saxons for a 13-8 win.

Jeremy Jacob scored four goals and Jack McOsker added four points, including a career-best three goals, to pace the Nazareth offense. All three of McOsker's goals came in succession in the decisive fourth quarter as Nazareth steadily pulled away.

The game was tied 4-4 at halftime and 5-5 after three quarters. Alfred scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to go up 6-5 in the opening seconds, but Cole Moore answered for Nazareth just 22 seconds later to retie the score. That touched off a four-goal flurry that ended with Nazareth up 9-6.

Just 29 seconds after Moore's goal, McOsker delivered his first goal off an extra-man pass from Quinn McKercher. He scored again off an assist from Jon Parrinello, then again unassisted after sprinting past an Alfred defender.

After the Saxons interrupted the scoring spree, Nazareth rattled off four more goals in a row to go up 13-7. Jon Roth scored unassisted and Lucas Cobery followed 28 seconds later off a pass from Tate Martinez. Less than a minute later, McKercher scored unassisted while Nazareth was a man down. Martinez finished it off just 29 seconds after that.

Jacob scored three of his goals in the first half and Quinn Conroy contributed an extra-man tally as the score see-sawed back and forth. Jacobs fourth goal came in the third quarter.

Nazareth had advantages in shots (44-37) and ground Balls (43-37). Mike Herrera went 12-for-24 on face-offs and goalie Carson Pickeral played well in equaling a career-high with 16 saves. Herrera also had eight ground balls, Pickeral and Moore five each. Martinez and McKercher each had two assists.

St. John Fisher won both previous meetings between the two schools earlier in the season, 17-6 at Nazareth on April 3 and 20-9 at Growney Stadium on April 24.