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HOBOKEN, N.J. -- Visiting Nazareth outscored Stevens 7-1 in the fourth quarter Saturday to rally past the Ducks for a stunning 17-15 men's lacrosse victory in the final regular-season game for both teams.
The victory boosted Nazareth's overall record to 12-5 with a 7-1 mark in Empire 8 Conference games. Stevens dropped to 13-4 and 6-2. The Golden Flyers clinched the No. 2 seed and first-round hosting privlages for next week's Empire 8 Conference Tournament. The Golden Flyers and the third-seeded Ducks will square off again Wednesday at Golden Flyer Stadium at 4 p.m. Top-seeded Ithaca will host St. John Fisher in another first-round matchup Wednesday. The championship game is Saturday at the site of the highest remaining seed.
Against Stevens Saturday, the Golden Flyers benefitted greatly from a pair of three-minute illegal stick violations against the Ducks, including one against long-pole Sam Esposito in the fourth quarter that resulted in three Nazareth man-up goals. Nazareth trailed 15-13 at the time of Esposito's infraction with 7:55 left in the fourth.
Joe Eiskant scored off a pass from
Luke Wooters just 37 seconds later and Wooters delivered the tying goal just 36 seconds after that.
Paul Walter then accounted for the go-ahead goal with 5:31 to play off an assist from
Troy Haefele.
After the penalty had finally expired,
Nick Arnold added an insurance tally with 2:41 to go. All told, Nazareth's 7-1 fourth quarter outburst erased a 14-10 deficit.
Matt O'Neill equaled a career-high with five goals, including an extra-man tally in the fourth quarter. Wooters had three goals and one assist and Eiskant also scored three times. Haefele had two goals and three assists, while Arnold scored twice. Walter and
Cameron Fry had the other goals.
Nazareth never led until the fourth quarter as the Ducks put up quarter leads of 4-3, 8-6 and 14-10. The Ducks led by as many as five goals, 12-7, with as little as 10:29 left in the third quarter.
The Ducks scored the game's first three goals before Nazareth tied the score with three goals in a span of 1:39 -- Fry, Eiskant and Haefele. Stevens' Tommy Dawson scored with just :05 left in the first quarter to put the Ducks back in front.
Stevens expanded its lead to 8-4 late in the second quarter, but an illegal stick penalty to Stevens' Connor O'Shea with 4:47 left in the half resulted in a pair of extra-man goals for O'Neill and pulled Nazareth to within 8-6 before halftime.
The Ducks regained control in the third quarter by outscoring Nazareth 6-4 with Dawson contributing a goal and an assist to push Stevens' lead to 14-10.
Nazareth picked up some momentum early in the fourth quarter as Wooters and Haefele scored in the first four minutes and O'Neill added another extra-man goal with 9:50 left. Connor Towne scored for Stevens just 38 seconds after O'Neill's goal to make the score 15-13 and set the stage for Nazareth's final flurry.
Overall, Nazareth went 7-for-8 on extra-man opportunties, while Stevens was only 1-for-5. Each team won 17 face-offs with
Seth DeLisle winning 14 of 28 and
Gavin Shaner 3 of 6 for Nazareth.
Luke Longo contributed a pair of assists and had six ground balls.
Scott Brown played all 60 minutes in goal for Nazareth and made 10 saves.
Matt Ferentini had three goals and an assist for Stevens and Max Bailey had two goals and two assists.