Box | Final stats
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Host Union outscored Nazareth 5-1 in the fourth quarter Wednesday to rally past the Golden Flyers for a 15-12 victory in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament for men's lacrosse at Union's Frank Bailey Field. The Golden Flyers led for much of the game, but faltered in the final 15 minutes as Union advanced to Saturday's second round against top-ranked RIT, a 24-3 winner over Morrisville in another first-round matchup.

Seniors Dan O'Brien and Will Fallo each scored three goals for Nazareth and junior Luke Wooters had two goals and three assists. The Golden Flyers, ranked 14th nationally, finish at 15-5 overall, while 15th-ranked Union improved to 14-4.

Nazareth led by as much as 10-7 following O'Brien's third goal of the game with 5:53 left in the third quarter. Union rallied to square the game at 10-10, but Nazareth regained the lead, 11-10, when Fallo beat the buzzer that ended the third quarter when he converted a pass from Hunter Burdick.

The fourth quarter belonged to Union as the Dutchmen outshot Nazareth 12-7 in the fourth and had a 10-5 edge in ground balls and won five of seven faceoffs. Five different players scored for Union, including Peter Richardson, who scored his second goal of the game to tie the score at 11-11 with 11:23 to go. Two minutes later Kyle Mason scored unassisted to give Union its first lead since early in the first quarter. Nazareth never recovered as Richardson assisted on goals by Nolan Stauffer and Charlie Ross and Jack Scheufele added an unassisted score to build a commanding 15-11 lead. Matt McDermott added an unassisted goal with 3:11 left to stop the bleeding for Nazareth.

Wooters had a goal and two assists as Nazareth led 3-2 after one quarter. He set up Troy Haefele for Nazareth's first goal at 10:24 and later fed Fallo for an extra-man goal with 7:27 left in the period. Wooters then scored off a pass from Burdick to give Nazareth a 3-1 advantage. Both of Union's goals came off face-offs. Tom Stanton scooped up a loose ball off the opening face-off of the game and scored unassisted just 23 seconds into the period. Then after Wooters scored with 2:00 left, Connor Hall won the ensuing face-off and scored eight seconds later.

Fallo and O'Brien scored in the second quarter. Fallo's goal came just over a minute into the period after sophomore goalie Michael Cuciti made a save and started a fastbreak that went from Vincent Parrillo to A.J. Small to Fallo for the goal. After Union scored twice to tie the score at 4-4, O'Brien scored on a blast from the outside after receiving a pass from Haefele.

The Dutchmen then tied the score 51 seconds before halftime on an unassisted goal by Stauffer.

Nazareth scored six more times in the third quarter, including two goals for O'Brien and season goal No. 50 for Wooters, but Union answered with five goals to stay close to set the stage for the final 15 minutes.

Union finished with advantages in shots (38-36) and ground balls (41-26). In addition, Union's Connor Hall outdueled Nazareth's Drew Simoneau at the faceoff x by winning 19 of 29 draws with nine ground balls. Simoneau had seven ground balls.