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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Host Nazareth surged to an 8-1 advantage late in the second quarter, then held off a furious second-half rally by Clarkson Wednesday to hand the Golden Knights their first men's lacrosse defeat of the season, 10-9, at Golden Flyer Stadium.

The non-conference victory evened Nazareth's overall record at 3-3, while Clarkson dropped to 4-1.

Nazareth dominated the first 30 minutes by winning 9 of 12 face-offs and building an 8-1 lead, before settling for an 8-2 halftime advantage. Clarkson rallied to score four times in the third quarter and three more times in the fourth to make the game close.

Clarkson's Matt Cyr scored his second goal of the game with 2:39 left to trim Nazareth's lead to 10-9, but Nazareth sophomore Mark Pinski controlled the game's final face-off and freshman Vincent Parrillo scooped up the ground ball and Nazareth was able to run out the remainder of the clock.

Senior Nate DeLone scored two goals and added an assist for Nazareth and juniors Chris Peterson and Brian Wright also scored two goals apiece. Freshman Drew Simoneau won 15 of 20 face-offs to enable Nazareth to control time of possession.

First-period goals by Trevar Haefele, Wright, Matt Sammarco (the first of his career) and Peterson enabled Nazareth to surge to a 4-0 advantage in the first 5:31 of the game. A goal by Clarkson's Matt Cyr interrupted the run, but Nazareth's John McDonnell added an unassisted score with :12 left in the first to make it 5-1.

Peterson scored in the opening minute of the second quarter off a pass from freshman Collin Clark, then senior #C.J. Estes# and DeLone scored 13 seconds apart as Nazareth's lead ballooned to a seemingly safe margin at 8-1.

Clarkson Eric Gollands scored with 5:38 left in the half to make it 8-2 and he added two more goals in the third quarter as the Golden Knights closed to within 9-6 with 15 minutes left. Nazareth countered with a third-period goal from DeLone.

In the fourth quarter, Clarkson scored in the opening minute on a goal by Kyle Kasprzyk, then Wright scored for Nazareth two minutes later to make it 10-7. The Golden Knights then got goals by Brendon Shearin and Cyr to close within 10-9.

Clarkson had a 33-32 edge in shots, while Nazareth had 22 ground balls to Clarkson's 17. Simoneau's 15 face-off wins included 10 ground balls.

Nazareth returns to action Saturday for a non-conference game at fifth-ranked Amherst at 1 p.m.