The Utica College men's lacrosse team trailed by just one goal at half but visiting and nationally-ranked No. 11 Nazareth College outscored the Pioneers 11-2 in the final 30 minutes of play on its way to a 15-6 victory in Empire 8 Conference action Wednesday. Travis Wright made 20 saves in net for the Pioneers but the Golden Flyers out shot UC 58-23 on their way to a nine goal victory.

The Pioneers – losers of three in a row – drop to 1-7 on the year and 0-2 in the Empire 8. Nazareth has now won four in a row, knocking off three straight conference opponents, to improve to 8-2 on the year.

The first half was a back and forth battle with the Pioneers striking first. Senior captain Andrew Waite netted his seventh goal of the season less than three minutes into the contest after clearing the ball himself and beating Naz goalie Todd Dermody to give UC an early 1-0 lead.

The Golden Flyers responded less than two minutes later when Joe Jacobs-Ferderbar scored his 18th goal of the season, off an assist from Mark DeCirce, to knot the score at 1-1 with 9:51 to go in the first quarter. Utica answered right back at the 5:28 marker when junior Kevin Conway netted an unassisted goal to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead.

Nazareth followed with two straight goals to close out the first quarter with a 3-2 lead.

UC opened the second quarter with two of the first three goals. Corey Boulio added his 12th of the year 1:01 into the quarter off an assist from Michael Schepis and senior captain Reed Reynolds added another goal, unassisted, after clearing the ball on his own to tie the score at 4-4 with 10:59 to go in the half. Nazareth's C.J. Estes, who finished the day with a game-high five goals, netted the final tally of the half to give the Golden Flyers a 5-4 lead headed into intermission.

Nazareth dominated the second half of play to crush the Pioneers hopes of knocking off one of the nation's toughest teams. Naz outscored Utica 6-0 in the third quarter and 4-2 in the fourth quarter to roll to the nine goal victory.

Michael Bulger and John Giordano added fourth quarter goals for Utica. Bulger currently leads the team with 22 goals.

The Pioneers return to action Saturday when they host non conference rival Medaille College on the turf at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium. The contest is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

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