| 4/19/2008 4:21:10 PM

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PITTSFORD, NY -- The RIT men's lacrosse team came into today's game versus arch-rival Nazareth College holding their playoff destiny in their hands. It was simple, they win, they're in. The Tigers reached their destiny with a convincing 18-7 win over the Golden Flyers in front of a packed house at Golden Flyers Stadium.

The win earns RIT a spot in next week's Empire 8 Tournament. The Tigers, the third seed, will face #2 seed Stevens Tech on Firday in Hoboken, New Jersey.

RIT, now 9-6 overall and 6-2 in the Empire 8, dominated Nazareth right from the opening face-off, rattling off five straight goals. The Tigers out shot the Golden Flyers 60-40 and went 3-for-5 with the man advantage. The Tigers won 18-of-28 face-offs and won the ground ball battle 47-39.

Defensively RIT force Nazareth into 28 turnovers, causing six and forced them into eight bad clears. Brad Conlon (Ottawa, ON/Bridgton Academy) (Ottawa, ON/Bridgton Academy) and his defensive mates were outstanding. Conlon made 14 saves, while allowing seven goals.

Its the fifth straight game that RIT has held their opponents to under 10 goals, going 4-1 in those contests. The group of Jacob Tuller (Corning, NY/Corning East) (Corning, NY/Corning East), Phil Davenport (New Market, MD/Linganore) (New Market, MD/Linganore), Chris Bulawa (Camilus, NY/West Genesee) (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee), M.J. Kiekebelt (Orangeville, ON/St. Andrew's) and Nick Dalton (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) (Webster, NY) wreaked havoc on Nazareth's offense. The group combined to grab 18 ground balls and force six turnovers.

The offense, which has averaged 16.0 goals per game over the last four games, was on on Saturday. Six different players had multi-point games led by Dan Rago (Geneva, NY) who had five goals. Iric Bressler (Stafford, VA/N. Stafford) had two goals and four assists. Andrew Ruocco (Corning, NY/Corning East) (Corning, NY/Corning East) had three goals and Wes Adam (Lafayette, NY/Lafayette) (Lafayette, NY) had a goal and four assists.

RIT rattled off the first five goals of the game and led 7-3 at the half. The Tigers fought off a three-goal run midway through the second quarter by the Golden Flyers, answering with goals from Ruocco and Bressler at the end of the half.

RIt broke the game open in the third quarter, tallying seven goals. Davis and Bressler opened the scoring to extend their lead to 9-4.

The Golden Flyers tallied a goal with 12:01 remaining in the third quarter and did not score again until the 10:39 mark of the fourth quarter.

The offense took advantage and rattled off six straight goals at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth to put the game away.

The Tigers tacked on four more goals in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach and get them into the tournament.

It will the fifth straight year that RIT has been in the Empire 8 Tournament. The Tigers are going for their second Empire 8 tournament title, the first coming in 2006.