ROCHESTER, NY – RIT head coach Jake Coon won his 100th career game as the No. 2 RIT men's lacrosse team (12-0) defeated arch-rival, Nazareth College (9-3) 15-10 on Tuesday afternoon at RIT's Turf Field. Coon is the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in Division III history and quickest to do so with one team since legendary Salisbury head coach Jim Berkman.

Shots were even at 34-34, while RIT held a 34-26 ground ball advantage. The Tigers cleared the ball 21-of-23 times. RIT went 0-for-3 on man-up, and stopped Nazareth's extra-man offense, 7-of-11 times. RIT was called for 11 penalties to just three for Nazareth in the contest.

Seniors Kyle Aquin (Hamilton, Ontario/St. Jean De Brebeuf), Allister Warren (Toronto, Ontario/Malvern Collegiate Institute) and sophomore Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) led the Tigers with four points apiece. Aquin tallied four goals, while Warren added a goal and three assists. Lee added two goals and two assists and Eddie Kiesa (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) scored three goals. Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport) had a goal and an assist and Brad Gillies (Oakville, Ontario/St. Thomas Aquinas) had a goal and two assists to go along with five ground balls.

Senior Pat Johnston (Norwell, MA/Norwell) got the win in net, making 11 saves. Jake Quay (Latham, NY/Shaker) went 7-of-18 on face-offs, while Josh Harris (St. Catharines, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) led the Tigers with seven ground balls. Matt Hossack (Port Perry, Ontario/Port Perry) tallied a goal, grabbed four ground balls and caused two turnovers.

Troy Haefele led Nazareth with three goals, while Luke Wooters had a goal and four assists for the Golden Flyers who have now lost eight straight versus RIT. Will Fallo added three assists, while Michael Cuciti got the loss in net making 12 saves. Face-off specialist Drew Simoneau, who was second in the nation heading into today's game, won 20-of-29 draws.

Kiesa gave RIT an early 2-0 lead, tallying the Tigers first two goals. He scored off a nice feed from Gillies at 12:49, and gave the Tigers the two-goal lead on his goal from Warren at 9:53.

Aquin kept the momentum going for RIT with his first goal of the afternoon at 7:46 of the opening quarter off a feed from Sterzin. Dan Lobosco scored a nifty goal in transition off an assist from JD Hall (Centennial, CO/Arapahoe) giving RIT a 4-0 lead.

Nazareth responded with three straight goals, pulling to within a goal when Hunter Burdick scored off an assist from Wooters with 2:41 to play in the first. Haefele and Wooters each had goals for the Golden Flyers in the run.

Hossack broke the run by Nazareth when he scooped up the loose ball off a face-off, drove in and beat Cuciti with a hard shot high over his left shoulder. Warren swept and scored from a sharp angle late in the first quarter giving the Tigers a 6-3 lead.

RIT failed to score in the second quarter, while Will Fallo tallied Nazareth's lone goal off a feed from Wooters with 1:07 to play in the half. The Tigers fired four shots on net in the quarter, but Cuciti came up big, keeping the nation's highest scoring offense off the board.
 
Longo scored the opening goal of the third quarter 14 seconds into the quarter, cutting the RIT lead to 6-5.

RIT's offense finally woke up, tallying five straight third quarter goals, taking an 11-5 lead on Gillies' eighth goal of the season with 7:58 to play in the quarter. Aquin, Hall, Kiesa, and Lee each had goals in the run for the Tigers.

Nazareth would not go away, answering right back with two straight goals to close out the third quarter trailing 11-7. Nick Arnold tallied an unassisted goal at 5:21, while Matt O'Neill scored with 2:07 to play. Haefele kept the momentum for Nazareth, tallying the first two goals of the fourth quarter, cutting the RIT lead to 11-9 on his 30th of the season with 11:27 to play in regulation.

Two straight goals from Aquin and a third from Sterzin with 5:39 to play extend the RIT lead back to five goals at 14-9. After a McDermott goal cut the lead to 14-10, Lee scored an empty-net goal with 25 seconds to play making it a 15-10 final.

With the win, the Tigers are now unbeaten in their last 36 regular season games, and improve to 16-18 all time versus Nazareth. The Tigers have won eight straight over the Golden Flyers, outscoring them 129-77 during that time.

Coon, the 2011 USILA and 2013 Division III Coach of the Year, is 100-14 (87.7%) has led the Tigers to five straight conference titles, and five straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including the Tigers first-ever appearance in the National Championship game in 2013.

RIT returns to action on Saturday, April 11, when they host Liberty League foe Vassar College at 12 p.m. on RIT's Turf Field.