EDWARDSVILLE – Wilkes University's Jack O'Connell (Linwood, NJ/St. Augustine Prep.) scored early in the fourth quarter to break open a tie game and the Colonels added two more tallies over the final seven minutes to post a 7-5 victory over Gordon College Wednesday afternoon at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes improved to 2-2 overall on the season while Gordon dropped to 2-4 on the year.
 
After Gordon scored first to open the game, Jacob Kudysch (Stratford, CT/Frank Scott Bunnell) knotted the contest at 1-1 with an unassisted goal with 7:07 on the first quarter clock.
 
Alex Myers (Cortland, NY/Cortland) added an unassisted goal before Luke Palladino (Wantagh, NY/Wantagh) scored on the man-up to extend the Wilkes advantage to 3-1 midway through the second stanza.
 
John Luna (San Diego, CA/Valley Center) added the Colonels' third unanswered strike to push the lead to 4-1 with 6:21 left in the half. From there Gordon responded with a key goal that stopped the Wilkes momentum with :16 remaining in the first half cutting the deficit to 4-2 at the break.
 
Two Gordon goals to start the third quarter, the second being on the man-up, tied the game at 4-4 setting up the final rally in the fourth for Wilkes.
 
O'Connell went coast-to-coast on his game-changing goal before Ethan Weaver (Olney, MD/James Hubert Blake) (man-up) and Connor Daly (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Twp.) added the insurance strikes for the Colonels.
 
Gordon added one goal with under four minutes, but the Wilkes defense stiffened and held on for the two-goal non-conference home victory.
 
Luna and Eric Ormsby (Warwick, NY/Warwick Valley) led all Wilkes scorers with two points each. Luna finished with one goal and one assist while Ormsby posted two assists.
 
Daniel Cox (Stratford, CT/Stratford) recorded the win in net for Wilkes playing the second half finishing with four saves in relief of starter Ryan Lasher (Warrenton, VA/Liberty) who finished with eight saves.
 
Wilkes returns to action Saturday with another non-conference home game against Morrisville State starting at 1:00 p.m. at Schmidt Stadium.