Juniors Mike Donnelly and Brian Cunningham scored five goals apiece to lead the St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team, who received votes in the latest USILA poll, to a 15-10 non-conference win over Nazareth on a snowy Saturday afternoon in Rochester, New York.

Donnelly also added three assists for eight points and picked up three ground balls, while Jack Hennessey scored two goals and assisted on two others for four points. Garret Glasgow, Kyle Gagne and Chris Jordan all scored one goal for the Saints, while Conor Caffrey picked up two assists. Tyler Burns picked up three ground balls and caused two turnovers for the Scarlet and Brown.

Jon Lippert struck first for the Golden Flyers, but Ben Murtagh fed Glasgow to even the score, 1-1, just over two minutes later. Cunningham scored and Donnelly added his first of the game, while Jack Crowley and Anthony Basile scored for Nazareth to bring the score to 3-3 after 15 minutes of play.

Donnelly netted his second of the game on an extra-man opportunity to open the second quarter.  Cunningham and Kevin Hussey traded goals before the Saints fired off four straight. Donnelly completed the hat trick with 4:29 to play in the second, followed by three straight from Cunningham to give the Scarlet and Brown a 9-4 lead at halftime.

Matthew Vanliew tallied a goal for the Golden Flyers at 10:32 of the third period, before Donnelly added his fourth of the game and Hennessey recorded back-to-back goals, giving the Saints a 13-5 lead heading into the final frame.

The Golden Flyers outscored the Saints 5-2 in the fourth quarter, but were unable to overcome the deficit from the first third quarters for a rally.

"I thought that was a really good test against a tough Nazareth team," said head coach Mike Mahoney '93 P '22. "They competed hard for all four quarters. As I told the team, there was a lot to like and a lot to learn from, which is where you hope to be after game one." 

Crowley led Nazareth with three goals, while Basile added two and five members of the Golden Flyer's squad tallied one. Tim Venton grabbed a team-best nine ground balls, while Jordan Goldbourn caused two turnovers.

Saints' goalkeeper Alex Terry made 10 saves and led the team with four ground balls, while Eric Almquist finished with 20 saves for Nazareth.

The Saints outshot Nazareth 50-33 and held a 35-20 shots on goal advantage, while the Golden Flyers held a slight 27-26 edge in ground balls. St. Lawrence converted on 2-of-7 extra-man opportunities, while Nazareth went 1-for-5.

St. Lawrence moved to 1-0 on the season, while Nazareth fell to 0-2 overall.

The Saints will travel to SUNY Geneseo to take on the Knights on Saturday, March 9 at 3 p.m.