ALFRED, NY – Brothers Quinn McKercher and Braeden McKercher scored five goals each and combined for 13 points to lead the Nazareth men's lacrosse team to a convincing 20-4 win Wednesday afternoon in the Empire 8 Tournament semifinal game at Alfred. The Golden Flyers (10-8) advance to the conference championship game Saturday at St. John Fisher.

The Cardinals broke open a close game with a 15-2 scoring advantage in the second and third quarters to record a 24-7 win over Hartwick. The game time will be determined after the second women's semifinal game as the Cardinals may host both championships Saturday.

The Alfred game did not start well for Nazareth as the Saxons (11-5) scored 42 seconds into the game for the early lead.

Less than 40 seconds later, junior Quinn Conroy scored the first of his three goals on the day to knot the score at 1-1.

A minute later, senior Greg Bilek scored for the Golden Flyers 2-1 lead but Alfred scored again to tie the game up three minutes into the semifinal.

After six minutes of back-and-forth action, freshman William Meagher scored for Nazareth to start a 13-0 scoring run that lasted until midway through the third quarter as the Golden Flyers took a commanding 15-2 lead.

The McKercher brothers combined for seven goals in the run with Quinn scoring four times, while Conroy added two more goals to his tally. Sophomore Owen Riley scored twice and senior Jack McOsker added a goal in the monumental run.

The teams traded goals with Meagher and Quinn McKercher each scoring for the Golden Flyers through the end of the third quarter as Nazareth took a 17-4 edge into the final period.

Braeden McKercher scored two more goals to start the fourth and freshman William O'Neill scored to give Nazareth a 20-4 lead with 9:32 left to play.

Alfred ended the scoring with its final goal at 2:47 of the quarter.

Graduate student Eric Almquist played 52 minutes and made 11 saves before senior Carson Pickeral came in for the final eight minutes and finished with one save.