ANNVILLE, PA – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team led 7-5 at the half only to see host Lebanon Valley College score five unanswered goals over the second thirty-minutes of play on way to a 10-7 non-conference victory Wednesday afternoon at Arnold Field.
 
Wilkes fell to 1-3 overall on the season following the road defeat while LVC evened its overall mark at 3-3 on the year.
 
Wilkes began the game wasting little time taking a 3-0 lead early in the first quarter. Anthony DelDuca (Westchester, NY/Westlake) started the scoring run with an unassisted goal at 13:30 before Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) found the back of the net off an assist from Colby Opromolla (Patterson, NY/Carmel) two minutes later to up the lead to 2-0. Dillon Kadis (McSherrystown, PA/Delone Catholic) finished off the three-goal rally off a Jackson Casper (Bel Air, MD/Bel Air) helper at 9:55 left in the opening stanza.
 
LVC answered back late in the first scoring back-to-back goals to cut the Colonels lead to 3-2 with 3:36 left in the frame. DelDuca notched his second goal of the quarter with 1:26 on the clock with another helper from Opromolla as Wilkes held a 4-2 advantage after 15 minutes of action.
 
LVC used two scores to open the second quarter tying the game at 4-4 before DelDuca completed his first half hat trick at the 10:45 mark with Matthew Warns (Cutchogue, NY/Mattituck) collecting the assist on the play. Kadis added his second goal of the half and Opromolla called his own number to push the Colonels lead to 7-4 with 4:08 left until the break. LVC added one last goal before the half as Wilkes led by two goals after two.
 
The Dutchmen posted the only goal scored by either team in the third quarter to cut the Wilkes advantage to 7-6 heading into the final 15 minutes of play.
 
From there the hosts scored four unanswered goals at the 14:06, 8:45, 6:13 and 5:23 mark to secure the comeback victory 10-7.
 
LVC held a 45-35 shot advantage throughout while the Colonels totaled 31 ground balls to the Dutchmen's 28. Wilkes was also efficient in clearing attempts finishing 22-of-24. LVC posted 12 faceoff wins to Wilkes' nine.
 
Opromolla (1G/2A) and DelDuca (3G) each posted three points to lead the Colonels attack,
 
Joseph Marino (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) finished with 12 saves, going over the 300 save mark for his career in the process.
 
Alex Kiviniemi topped LVC with a game-high five points on three goals and two helpers.
 
Wilkes hosts Alvernia University next Wednesday in a non-conference tilts scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at Schmidt Stadium.