Nazareth College took the lead with five straight goals in the third quarter and the nationally ranked No. 13 Golden Flyers held on for a 14-12 non-conference win against the Hamilton College Continentals in Rochester, N.Y., on Wednesday afternoon.

Hamilton (3-3 overall) led 8-7 at the half and 9-8 early in the third quarter when Nazareth went on its five-goal run. The Golden Flyers enjoyed a 13-9 cushion after three quarters but the Continentals pulled to within a goal midway through the fourth. Nazareth notched an insurance goal with 6:13 left and Hamilton didn't find the back of the net again.

Sam Sweet '16 and Clay McCollum '19 paced the Continentals with three goals apiece. Faceoff specialist Eric Zurmuehle '18 posted two goals and an assist, and Pat Donahoe '16 and J.D. Brachman '17 added one goal and one helper apiece. Casey Kopp '17 scored his second goal for Hamilton and Quinn Morris '18 picked up his first.

Zurmuehle won 16 of 28 faceoffs and led all players with 11 ground balls. He has won nearly 72 percent of his faceoffs this season and leads the NESCAC with 61 ground balls. Kopp scooped up four ground balls and Jack Gaul '18 had three. Noah Weissmann '18 made five of his nine saves in the second quarter in his third collegiate start.

For the Golden Flyers (5-2), Luke Wooters scored two goals and assisted on five more. Troy Haefele contributed three goals and an assist, and Jacob Gray ended up with three goals. Luke Longo finished with two goals and Joe Eiskant and Paul Walter registered one goal and one assist apiece. Seth DeLisle picked up seven ground balls and won 11 faceoffs.

Scott Brown started in goal for Nazareth but allowed seven goals and had just three saves in 22-plus minutes. Michael Cuciti relieved Brown midway through the second quarter and turned away 11 shots. Cuciti stopped six shots in the third quarter alone.

Wooters tied the score at 8-8 with 12:36 remaining in the third quarter but Zurmuehle gave the lead right back to the Continentals as he won the ensuing faceoff, carried the ball into the offensive zone and scored.

Longo forged the final tie with 8:17 to go in the third and Haefele put the Golden Flyers in front for good on a man-up goal with 7:35 left. The extra-man opportunity was the only one of the game for Nazareth. The Golden Flyers scored three more goals in the last 4:19 of the quarter and went into the final 15 minutes with a 13-9 lead.

Hamilton nearly caught up to Nazareth in the fourth quarter. Sweet scored on a pass from Brachman 63 seconds into the fourth and McCollum made it 13-11 with 12:18 remaining. Kopp cut the Continentals' deficit to one on his goal with 6:59 to go, only to watch Gray restore the Golden Flyers' two-goal advantage 46 seconds later. Hamilton took five shots in the last six minutes, three of which were saved by Cuciti.

After Nazareth opened the scoring the Continentals went on a five-goal run and took a 5-1 lead midway through the first quarter. Sweet and McCollum scored two goals apiece and Zurmuehle had a goal and an assist during the spurt. The Golden Flyers scored the next four goals and tied things up at 5-5 after the opening 15 minutes.

In the second quarter, Brachman put Hamilton back in front on a feed from Donahoe 35 seconds in, but Nazareth took the lead again on two goals 63 seconds apart. Donahoe tied the score at 7-7 with 7:50 left and Morris gave the Continentals a one-goal lead at the break on a pass from Matt Hermann '17 -- his first career assist.

Hamilton is on the road against another ranked team on Saturday, March 26, when they travel to No. 5 Amherst College for a NESCAC game at 1 p.m.