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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Nazareth's defense held visiting St. Lawrence without a shot in the final minute of regulation to lead the Golden Flyers to an 8-7 victory over the Saints in a non-conference men's lacrosse game on Saturday afternoon. St. Lawrence's game-tying attempt was thwarted by the Golden Flyers' defense, who knocked the ball away from the Saints. Nazareth pushed the ball back twoard midfield and prevented St. Lawrence from collecting the ground ball.

With the victory, Nazareth improves to 2-1 overall. With the loss, St. Lawrence suffers its first defeat of the season. The Saints also stand at 2-1 overall.

The Golden Flyers claimed a 3-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes of action. Wooters put Nazareth on the board after receiving a pass from classmate Troy Haefele, who was behind the net. About three minutes later, Haefele was on the scoring end after receiving a pass from senior Matt McDermott. McDermott, running down the left wing in transition, found Haefele open near the middle of box, and Haefele buried a side-arm shot. After winning the ensuing face-off, senior Drew Simoneau drove through the Saints' defenders for an unassisted score.

St. Lawrence scored the majority of its goals in the opening five minutes of the second, third and fourth quarters. The Saints scored twice in a span of less than three minutes in the second. Conor Healy dodged around a Nazareth defender and beat sophomore goalie Michael Cuciti. Jeremy Vautour brought St. Lawrence to within one goal with a quick shot before the Golden Flyers defense could rotate. The goal came moments after a Nazareth penalty expired.

The Golden Flyers answered with three consecutive goals to close the quarter. With just under eight minutes left in the period, Burdick socred his first of the game on a drive to the net from the left wing. Senior Will Fallo added a man-up goal four minutes later, then Wooters capped the run with an unassisted goal with less than two minutes to play in the half.

In the third quarter, Austin Nadeau and Charlie Jennings each found the back of the Nazareth net in the opening 5:02. The Golden Flyers answered with a man-up goal by sophomore Joe Eiskant. Junior Matt O'Neill earned the assist. With 2:12 to play in the third, Burdick tallied the eventual game-winning goal, which was his third score of the season. Burdick's goal stretched Nazareth's lead back to four goals, 8-4.

The Saints scored two goals in the first 61 seconds of the fourth quarter to pull to within 8-6. Tommy Hovey scored his 10th of the season 33 seconds into the period. Wil Burchenal scored a man-up goal after Nazareth was whistled for an illegal procedure on face-off violations after Hovey's goal. Hovey cut the Golden Flyers' lead to 8-7 with 8:13 to play in regulation, but the Golden Flyers maintained the lead throughout the remainder of the contest.

Simoneau finished with a game-high 11 ground balls, and he won 13 of 18 face-offs. Nazareth finished with advantages in shots (35-20) and ground balls collected (27-18). Nick Ford made 14 saves for the Saints in the loss. Cuciti recorded six saves to earn his first victory of the season, and senior Jerry Chasteen led the Golden Flyers' defense with a game-high four caused turnovers.

Nazareth is in action again on March 11th when the Golden Flyers travel to Bradenton, Florida to play Oneonta. When the Golden Flyers return from Florida, they will host Clarkson at 4 p.m. in a non-conference game.