ANNVILLE, Pa – For the second time in three weeks, the Lebanon Valley College football team gave a powerhouse program all it could handle but came up just short, as the Flying Dutchmen dropped a 13-10 decision to No. 15 Wilkes on Saturday afternoon in a Middle Atlantic Conference tilt at a sunny, windy Arnold Field.
Jim Jordan caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Al Karaffa with 4:59 left in the third quarter, and it held up as the game-winning touchdown as Wilkes (6-0, 5-0 MAC) kept its perfect record intact.
Just two weeks ago, Lebanon Valley (3-4, 2-4 MAC) led for much of the game before bowing to two-time defending MAC champion Delaware Valley, 19-18.
Jordan finished with 129 yards on seven receptions for Wilkes while Karaffa threw for 229 yards on 17-of-23 passing.
Tom Andreopoulos rushed for a game-high 84 yards and had a 14-yard touchdown run that gave the Colonels a 7-0 lead early in the game. Freshman tailback Charlie Parker ran for 66 of his 74 yards in the first half to lead the Flying Dutchmen.
With Wilkes facing a fourth-and-10 at the LVC-25, Karaffa found Jordan in the right front corner of the end zone, as Jordan just kept his feet inbounds for the score. However, Ryan Yurewicz missed the extra point, and it nearly came back to hurt the Colonels.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Flying Dutchmen put together a 12-play, 58-yard drive, moving to the Wilkes-14. But a 31-yard field goal attempt from freshman Dan DiBona with 5:43 remaining was wide right, and the Colonels were unable to run off the rest of the clock, converting two third downs along the way.
After Andreopoulos' touchdown, the Dutchmen answered with a 15-play, 79-yard drive. Senior tailback David Ochoa, a transfer from Widener University, capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run, his first as a Dutchman. Freshman Josh Evans kicked the extra point to make it 7-7 with 4:19 left in the opening quarter.
The Dutchmen converted a Wilkes fumble into a field goal midway through the second quarter. Sophomore linebacker Brian Cottone made a hit on tailback Jason Nabba, who coughed up the ball at the LVC-36. Sophomore defensive end Daryl Buck fell on the loose pigskin for the Dutchmen, and the Valley would drive to the Wilkes-2. Facing a fourth-and-1, LVC elected to attempt a field goal, and DiBona kicked through a 20-yarder 6:27 before the end of the half. The scoreboard read 10-7 at the intermission.
Wilkes applied the clamps defensively in the second half, yielding only 79 total yards, including just 25 on the ground. In the meantime, the Colonels were able to accumulate 269 second-half yards after managing 115 in the opening half.
Senior Dan Kelly completed 14 of 19 passes for 137 yards for Lebanon Valley while junior receiver Adam Brossman had seven receptions for 87 yards. He is now just 46 yards shy of the Lebanon Valley career receiving yardage record of 2,364 held by Brian Wassell '91.
Brossman also punted seven times for an average of 37.1 yards per kick.
Cottone led all players with 17 tackles, the most by an LVC player since Nick Wehrheim had 18 against Juniata in 2002, while linebacker Kyle Follweiler made 15 tackles for Wilkes. Junior linebacker Terry Kaufman added nine tackles for the Dutchmen while senior cornerback Dan Stauffer posted his team-leading fifth interception of the season, matching his career-high set in the 2004 campaign.
Lebanon Valley returns to MAC action next Saturday, when it visits Lycoming at 1:30 p.m.
[Photo - Junior Terry Kaufman, who made nine tackles against Wilkes on Saturday]
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