ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – The Wilkes men's lacrosse team were bested in the penultimate game of the regular season, falling to Landmark Conference leaders Elizabethtown at Wolf Field on Saturday afternoon 30-5.

Wilkes falls to 4-11 on the year with a 1-7 record in Landmark play, while the Blue Jays improve to 9-5 overall and remain undefeated in conference play at 7-0.

Etown opened the scoring in the first quarter, but the Colonels had responses for each of their first two goals. First it was Austin Sosnovik (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) who equalized on a solo effort to make it a 1-1 game, then Blake Billingsley's (Ephrata, PA/Ephrata) unassisted shot brought the Colonels level again at 2-2 with 4:22 left in the first frame. The Blue Jays scored again with just over a minute to play to take a narrow 3-2 lead into the second quarter.

The second quarter opened with two Etown goals before Colby Opromolla (Patterson, NY/Carmel) rippled the netting with his shot to make it a 5-3 game. That would be the lone Wilkes goal of the quarter, as the Blue Jays took a 15-3 lead into halftime with 10 unanswered goals.

Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) put the Colonels on the board again in the third quarter, firing the pass from Sosnovik into the net to make it a 19-4 game with 5:35 left in the third.

Wilkes' final goal of the day came on a man-up opportunity from Jackson Casper (Bel Air, MD/Bel Air), assisted by Opromolla, 16 seconds into the fourth quarter. When the final horn sounded, the Blue Jays took a 30-5 victory.

Sosnovik and Opromolla led the team in points, both registering a goal and an assist to end the day on two points. Opromolla and Casper shared the team lead in shots on goal with three, while Michael Rauch (Jackson, NJ/Jackson) led with eight ground balls. In net, Caleb Miller (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) made 14 saves in 45 minutes of play and was given the decision.

Colin Kondracki led Elizabethtown with five goals and shared the team-high in points with Gavin Gismondi at eight. TJ Chapman picked up a team-high 11 ground balls and went 19-21 from the faceoff circle. Goalkeeper Brayden Franey made six saves in 33 minutes of play, but Christian Schrader earned the decision for the Blue Jays.
The Colonels travel to Catholic University next Saturday, April 27, for the final game of the regular season at 1:00 p.m.