EDWARDSVILLE – Visiting Manhattanville College broke open a close game at the half outscoring host Wilkes University 13-4 over the final 30 minutes including a stretch of 11 straight goals on way to a 20-9 MAC Freedom victory Saturday afternoon at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes lost its second straight game dropping to 6-4 overall and 0-2 in MAC Freedom play while Manhattanville improved to 5-5 overall and evened its conference record at 1-1.
 
Manhattanville struck early scoring the game's first two goals just four minutes into the contest. Wilkes' Ashley Burkhardt (Havre de Grace, MD/Havre de Grace) cut the deficit in half with an unassisted goal with 20:10 on the clock.
 
After another Valiants goal, Camryn Devitt (Northampton, PA/Northampton) and Sierra Duman (Smyrna, DE/Smyrna) notched back-to-back goals to tie the game at 3-3 with 16:00 left in the first half. Manhattanville responded scoring two unanswered goals of their own before Kyra Boccio (Dingmans Ferry, Pa./Delaware Valley) found the back of the net twice for her 33^rd  and 34^th goals of the season as the game went tied again at 5-5.
 
Manhattanville ended the first half scoring two goals over the final seven minutes to settle for a 7-5 lead at the break.
 
The Valiants began their furious rally to begin the second half scoring the game's next nine goals to take a commanding 16-5 advantage with just over 16 minutes left on the clock.
 
Burkhardt scored her second strike of the game to stop the Valiant run and Devitt added her 12^th of the season three minutes later as the Colonels trailed 17-7 with 10:05 remaining. Boccio and Devitt rounded out the rest of the Wilkes scoring each completing hat tricks in the final minutes of the game.
 
Boccio and Devitt accounted for six of the Colonels nine goals in the contest to lead the offense. Burkhardt added two goals while Duman followed with one goal and a team-high six draw controls.
 
The Valiants held a 43-23 shot advantage while claiming 18-of-31 draw controls. Sarah Carlini (Collegeville, PA/Pope John Paul II) finished with 15 saves in net for Wilkes while Melania Velasquez (Baltimore, MD/Patapsco) entered in relief making one stop in 9:32 in goal.
 
Wilkes returns to play Wednesday when the Colonels travel to Eastern University for a 4:00 p.m. MAC Freedom matchup.