ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Visiting St. John Fisher outscored Nazareth Saturday in the Empire 8 men's lacrosse opener for both teams, 20-14, at Golden Flyer Stadium.

The fifth-ranked Cardinals used an 8-1 scoring run that bridged the first and second quarters to seize control of the game and improve to 8-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Nazareth, playing for the first time in 10 days, dropped to 3-6 overall and 0-1 in the Empire 8.

Braeden McKercher led the Golden Flyers with a career-best five goals. His brother Quinn McKercher had two goals and one assist. Brett Randall contributed two goals and two assists and Jeremy Jacob added a pair of goals. Tucker O'Donnell had three goals and four assists for Fisher and Nicholas Miller added two goals and five assists.

Nazareth had early leads of 2-1 and 3-2 in the first quarter, but Fisher rallied to take a 4-3 lead after 15 minutes. The Cardinals then scored the first three goals of the second quarter to go up 7-3. A goal by Nazareth's Greg Bilek interrupted the spree, but Fisher scored three more times before halftime for a 10-4 advantage. Braeden McKercher scored just eight seconds before halftime off an assist from Quinn to make it 10-5 at the half.

Nazareth desperately tried to stay close, but Fisher ultimately scored six more times in the third quarter and four more times in the fourth to stay comfortably in front.

Nazareth closed to within four goals twice in the third quarter. It was 13-9 after Jacob scored a man-up goal with 3:29 left. And it was 14-10 after Randall scored his team-leading 29th goal with 2:44 left.

In the fourth quarter, Nazareth again pulled with four goals at 17-13 after Quinn McKercher converted a pass from Quinn Conroy, but Fisher scored the next three goals before Nazareth's Matt Keane netted his first career goal before the final horn sounded. Nathan Anderson also scored for Nazareth in the fourth quarter.

Fisher had advantages in shots (54-47) and ground balls (40-26) and benefited from a 24-11 face-off edge, thanks to Joe Post winning 24 of 34 and collecting 12 ground balls.

Keane won 11 face-offs for Nazareth and had six ground balls. Carson Pickeral played the first half in goal and made five saves. Eric Almquist played the second half and made 10 saves. Fisher's Ben Hammond played all 60 minutes and made 13 saves.

Nazareth plays again Tuesday at Cortland at 4 p.m.