ROCHESTER, NY – Third-seeded Nazareth was outscored 10-2 in the second half as top-seeded St. John Fisher earned a 19-7 victory to win the Empire 8 Championship on Saturday. Graduate student Eric Almquist made 10 saves in net to tie the single season saves record at 237. Ben Wineburg also had 237 saves in 1996. Almquist also moved into second all-time in career saves with 592.
 
The Golden Flyers and the Cardinals are both 10-9 after the contest. St. John Fisher earns an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championships.
 
It was the third-straight matchup in the Empire 8 Championship, with Fisher winning 20-6 in 2021 and 30-11 in 2022. The Cardinals have now won four-straight Empire 8 titles (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023).
 
St. John Fisher won all eight faceoffs in the opening quarter and 13 of 16 in the opening 30 minutes to put Nazareth at a disadvantage. The Cardinals finished with a 21-9 edge in faceoffs.
 
Greg Bilek opened the scoring for Nazareth 2:33 into the game to give the third seed the early advantage. Fisher scored the next four goals, including one on the man-up, to take a 4-1 advantage.
 
The Golden Flyers stopped the run on a Matthew Farrington goal with 2:15 left, before Fisher responded. It was 5-2 after one quarter of play.
 
The Cardinals scored just 17 seconds into the second to take a four-goal advantage. Nazareth rebounded with Farrington's second of the game off an assist from Braeden McKercher. McKercher was then on the other end of a goal for Nazareth to bring the score to 6-4 with under 10 minutes to play in the half.
 
Fisher scored three of the next four goals to take a 9-5 lead into the break. Long stick Sean O'Brian had the other goal for the Purple and Gold.
 
The third quarter was dominated by the Cardinals to open up the game as they scored six of the seven goals, including two on the man-up. That lengthened their lead to  15-6.  Jack McOsker had the lone goal for Nazareth in the quarter.
 
Louis Cogliandro scored the Golden Flyers only goal in the fourth and the Cardinals tacked on four more.

For the day, St. John Fisher was 3-for-5 on the man-up and Nazareth 0-2. The Cardinals also had a 53-28 edge in shots.