ROCHESTER, NY – The Nazareth men's lacrosse team closed out the regular season on Saturday, falling 17-9 at East Avenue rival St. John Fisher. Graduate student Eric Almquist made 20 saves in the losing effort.
 
Nazareth is now 9-8 on the season and 5-2 in conference play, while Fisher moves to 8-9 and 7-0 in the Empire 8.
 
The stage is now officially set for next week's Empire 8 Championships, with Nazareth earning the No. 3 seed and traveling to No. 2 Alfred (11-4, 6-1) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Nazareth will look to avenge a 13-11 loss at Alfred earlier in the season. Top-seeded Fisher will host Hartwick (5-5, 3-3) in the other semifinal.
 
Nazareth trailed 9-4 at the half after being outshot 33-12. Almquist made 12 of his 20 saves in the half. Quinn McKercher scored Nazareth's first goal to make the score 2-1 and Braeden McKercher added his first goal with 4:32 left in the first. It was 5-2 after 15 minutes of play.

The Golden Flyers were crippled at the faceoff circle in entire game, losing 13-of-15 in the first 30 minutes and finishing the game 5-for-29.
 
Braeden McKercher added his second of the day in the second and Jack McOsker added a man-up tally later in the quarter.
 
Each team scored three goals in the third to make the score 12-7 heading into the final frame.
 
Nazareth made it close with Matthew Farrington's lone goal, followed by McKercher's third of the day :32 seconds later to make the score 12-9 with nine minutes to play. The Golden Flyers would not however score the rest of the game and Fisher scored four more times to close out the victory.
 
Quinn McKercher led Nazareth with seven points on two goals and five assist. He now leads Nazareth with 69 points on 39 goals and 30 assists. Quinn Conroy and William O'Neill also scored for Nazareth.