ONEONTA, N.Y. -- Senior Chris Law (Catonsville, MD won 9 of 14 face-offs and scored two goals for visiting Nazareth Saturday as the Golden Flyers defeated Hartwick in men's lacrosse, 11-6.

The victory was the third straight for the Golden Flyers, who improved to 6-3 overall and 3-0 in conference games. Hartwick dropped to 3-6 overall and 1-3 in the Empire 8.

The Golden Flyers overcame an early 2-0 disadvantage to take a 5-4 halftime lead. The Golden Flyers broke the game open by opening the second half with four straight goals to go up 9-4. Hartwick scored late in the third quarter and early in the fourth to close to within 9-6, but Nazareth held the Hawks scoreless over the final 13 minutes while scoring twice to create the five-goal victory margin.

Trailing 2-0 early, Nazareth got first-quarter goals from Scott Castle (Skaneateles, NY), Kyle Brown (Baltimore, MD) and Erinn O'Hara (Camillus, NY) to tie the score after 15 minutes. O'Hara scored again off a pass from Mark DeCirce (Binghamton, NY) to open the second-period scoring. Then Law cleanly won the ensuing face-off and scored unassisted just five seconds later to make it 5-3. Hartwick's Alex Giovinazzo contributed a man-up goal with 5:34 left in the half to make it a one-goal game at the half.

Nazareth dominated the third quarter by outscoring the Hawks 4-1 and outshooting them 17-3. Sophomore Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar (Orchard Park, NY) scored off an assist from Castle just 21 seconds into the half. Castle also assisted Law on the next goal just 28 seconds after that.

Jacobs-Ferderbar scored again off an assist from O'Hara with 11 minutes left in the quarter and Castle contributed his second goal of the game with 7:27 left to make it 9-4.

After Hartwick closed to within 9-6, Nazareth got fourth-quarter goals from DeCirce and Jacobs-Ferderbar to seal the victory.

Nazareth had a 48-24 advantage in shots and a 43-29 edge in ground balls. Senior Alex Cole (Cincinnati, OH) had seven ground balls and Jacobs-Ferderbar had five. Junior Todd Dermody (Selden, NY) played all 60 minutes in goal and had five saves. John Meade had 14 saves for Hartwick.

Nazareth is off until next Saturday when the Golden Flyers host Ithaca at 1:00 p.m.

2009-04-04