ROCHESTER, NY – The Alfred University men's lacrosse team faced off against St. John Fisher on Wednesday afternoon in an Empire 8 conference matchup. The Saxons (8-6, 4-4 Empire 8) fell to a tough Cardinal team by a score of 15-5 to fall to .500 in the conference on the season. 
 
Joe Fornataro (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) helped the Saxons out to an early 1-0 lead at the 11:08 mark of the first quarter. Fisher responded though just minutes later to even the score at one.
 
The teams played solid defense throughout the remaining minutes of the first quarter but with just 1:27 left in the period, the Cardinals notched another goal to go up 2-1. 
 
The Cardinals tacked on two more in the second quarter before Kyle Landrigan (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) put another on the board for AU off of a dish from Cole Donegan (Corning, NY/Corning-Painted Post) to make the score 4-2. 
 
The Cardinals went on to add two more goals before the half and go into the break leading 6-2.
 
St. John Fisher was first on the board in the third quarter but the Saxons showed some life with two straight goals from Donegan and Adrian Romero (Rochester, NY/Greece Arcadia) to cut the deficit to just three.
 
After Fisher went on to score two straight of its own, Fornataro scored his second of the game to make it 9-5 with just over nine minutes to play in the third quarter. 
 
From that point, the momentum swung the way of the Cardinals as they scored six unanswered to close out the game and improve to 6-1 in the Empire 8. 

"Our guys played hard today.  We ended the game with a loss but we played with a lot of pride and heart," Head Coach Jason Lockner said. "Both goalies played very well we just need to capitalize more on the opportunities we create."
 
Fornataro led the offense with two goals while Donegan had a goal and an assist. Jeremiah Kinner (Bath, NY/Haverling) picked up a team high six ground balls while Ben Cafolla (Seneca Falls, NY/Mynderse Academy) caused three turnovers to lead the Saxons. Scott Kimiecik (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) was in the net for AU and finished with 17 saves. 
 
Alfred will be back at home on Saturday at 1PM for a huge matchup with Nazareth College in the regular season finale. The winner of that one will go on to grab the fourth and final spot in the Empire 8 playoffs beginning a week from today.