Box Score
Football
Lebanon Valley 42, Wilkes 35
EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. - Big offensive performances by
Colt Zarilla,
Ben Guiles, and
Tim Picerno helped Lebanon Valley hold off a late Wilkes surge to win, 42-35, on Saturday.
The Dutchmen (6-3, 4-3 MAC) opened it up in the fourth quarter with two of Picerno's three touchdown catches to give LVC a good shot at a third consecutive ECAC Bowl appearance with a win next week over King's. The Colonels (3-5, 3-4 MAC) scored twice late in the fourth quarter in a comeback bid reminiscent of their overtime win at Arnold Field in 2010.
"The history of this series the last few years it seems like it goes the same way," said head coach
Jim Monos, whose team has played six straight one-score games against Wilkes. "We did what we had to do to win. We hadn't won in a couple weeks and now we're in another close football game, but we win."
Guiles torched Wilkes once again for 208 yards, breaking the career scoring record and putting him just 36 yards away from the LVC career rushing mark. Zarilla had career-highs with 277 yards and four touchdowns, along with one on the ground, and favored target Picerno catching seven passes for 183 yards and three scores in LVC's third-biggest receiving yardage game all-time.
"I'm trying to do my best every week to put us in the best position to have another bowl game coming down to the end. I don't want to stop playing football," Picerno, a senior, said. "[Zarilla and I] are on the same page from practice all week to the game. We just know what each other is going to do."
Kicker
Sean Fakete became the LVC single-season leader in PATs, booting four to surpass
Brittany Ryan '11's record of 33 set in 2009.
Wilkes quarterback Alex George threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, but the LVC defense generated turnovers on a
Ryan Melley interception and a
DJ Poligone fumble recovery. The Dutchmen held the MAC's second-leading rusher, Zach Tivald, to just 49 yards.
Guiles opened the game with a 22-yard run to break the scoring record, but Wilkes' Auxence Wogou responded with a 17-yard run of his own on the Colonels' first drive. The Dutchmen came back and put points up on Picerno's 47-yard grab from Zarilla to go up 13-7.
Wilkes scored first in the second quarter when George found Tim Bousson on a seven-yard route to cap off a long drive, but Zarilla's one-yard sneak and a late pass to
Matt Mankiewicz extended the lead to 27-14 at halftime.
The Colonels cut it closer in the third when George snuck it in to make it 27-21 before Picerno caught touchdowns of 41 and 8 yards in the fourth quarter to blow the lead out to 42-21.
Wilkes wouldn't go away with fourth-quarter touchdowns by Zach Tivald and George, but LVC took the ball back with 1:35 remaining and worked a first down to ice the game.
Game Notes
LVC rolled out 513 yards of offense with a balanced 277 yards passing and 236 rushing ... Wilkes, averaging 233 yards on the ground, ran for 272 yards ... It was the sixth straight year that LVC-Wilkes came down to a one-score game, being decided by an average of five points ... Picerno's 198 yards trails only Adam Brossman's 337 yards in 2006 and Bob Schwenk's 199 yards in 1992 ... Picerno also recovered two on-side kicks late in the game ... Guiles' day was his second career 200-yard game and 17th 100-yard game ... It was only the fifth 200-yard game in LVC history ... Guiles finishes his career with 633 yards against Wilkes, with games of 66, 187, 172, and 208 ... The senior has 3,672 career yards, trailing Charlie Parker '10's 3,707 ... In addition to his passing performance, Zarilla also ran for a touchdown and a two-point conversion, both the first of the season ... LVC converted a fake punt in the second quarter, with Zarilla hitting Macke Hall for a 26-yard gain into Wilkes territory that led to a touchdown later in the series ... Cory Homer had a game-high 13 tackles ... Kevin Smith and Wes Rockwell had 2.0 sacks each, with one solo and a shared hit between them.
