EDWARDSVILLE – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team dropped a non-conference home contest against Alvernia University Wednesday night at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes fell to 3-5 overall following the home defeat while Alvernia improved to 5-2 on the season.
 
Alvernia scored the only two goals of the opening period before the Colonels fired back with three unanswered in the second quarter to take a 3-2 lead with 8:45 on the clock. Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) began the scoring for Wilkes with an unassisted tally at 13:03 before Lucas Ortenberg (Kings Park, NY/Kings Park) notched his third goal of the season four minutes later. Blaine Snyder (Germansville, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) finished off the Wilkes run tying the game at three.
 
The Golden Wolves responded next with three straight goals, one being on the man-up advantage, to take a 5-3 advantage with 6:09 left in the first half. From there the back-and-forth scoring continued as Hartka struck for his second of the game on a shot from the right side and followed to complete his hat trick with another laser from the wing tying the game at five at the break.
 
Alvernia tilted the momentum back in its favor in the third quarter scoring four of the six goals in the frame. Trailing 7-5, Snyder scored unassisted to cut the lead to one with 7:40 on the clock before two more Alvernia goals pushed it back to 9-6 three minutes later. Anthony DiFrancesco (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) got on the board with 1:23 left in the third quarter off an assist from Oscar Cline (New Paltz, NY/New Paltz) as Wilkes trailed by two after three.
 
Alvernia then outscored the Colonels 4-1 over the final 15 minutes of play including three straight scored with under six minutes left to play that secured the road non-conference win.
 
Hartka led all Wilkes scorers with a season-high four goals. Snyder added two goals while DiFrancesco finished with one goal and one assist.
 
Caleb Miller (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) posted 11 saves in net for the Colonels including the 400^th of his career. Alvernia outshot Wilkes 45-23 while the Golden Wolves dominated the faceoff circle winning 18-of-25.
 
Wilkes opens Landmark Conference play on Saturday when the Colonels host Juniata College at 12:00 p.m. on Senior Day at Schmidt Stadium.