UTICA, NY – Sophomore Johnny Jackson scored the lone goal for the Nazareth College Men's Hockey team Saturday as the Golden Flyers fell 7-1 to Utica College in a United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) game at the Utica War Memorial.

In a close first period, Utica (18-2-0 overall, 14-0-0 UCHC), rankled No. 3 in the latest USCHO.com poll, scored 1:01 into the game but Nazareth (7-12-2, 6-7-1 UCHC) battled back to overcome the early momentum and trailed by the 1-0 score after the first 20 minutes of action.

IN the second period, the Pioneers pushed the lead to 3-0 with a pair of power play goals with the first coming at the 4:23 mark and the second landing at 10:39.

Jackson trimmed the lead with an unassisted goal two minutes later to give the Golden Flyers a chance to get back into the game.

Late in the period, Utica scored a pair of goals in a span of 39 seconds to take control of the game and surge to a 5-1 lead as the second period ended.

Neither team could find the back of the net in the first half of the third period before Utica scored at the 11:29 mark of the period for a convincing 6-1 edge and added a late goal for the final margin of victory as seven different players scored goals for the Pioneers.

Freshman Matt Sayles finished with 32 saves including nine saves in the first period and another 13 in the final period for Nazareth.

The Utica game was the lone action for the Golden Flyers this weekend as the team returns to a regular schedule next weekend at home against Wilkes Friday and at King's Saturday before finishing the regular season with a home series against Neumann and Manhattanville February 19 and 20 respectively.

Nazareth currently sits in a tie for fourth place in the UCHC standings with Manhattanville as the two teams are two points ahead of both Chatham and Neumann.