ANNVILLE, Pa. – Alex Kiviniemi scored five goals including the 100th of his career to lead the Lebanon Valley men's lacrosse team on Saturday afternoon in a tough 20-15 defeat to visiting Messiah University in the annual Crosse Out Cancer game.
 
LVC (7-7, 1-4 MAC Commonwealth) jumped out to a 2-1 lead on goals by Carson Frey and Evan Miller. The teams waited out an 1:15 lightning delay before returning to the field with 8:50 remaining in the first quarter. Messiah (9-4, 2-2 MAC Commonwealth) tied the game up before Jake Bollinger scored a man-up goal to give the Dutchmen back the lead. Ben Weathersby picked up the ground ball on the ensuing faceoff and scored 10 seconds later to make it a two-goal game. The teams traded goals the rest of the quarter with Kiviniemi scoring his first goal of the game. Bollinger opened the scoring in the second quarter and the Falcons answered nearly a minute later to make it a 6-5 game. The Dutchmen went on a run with Colin Hughes and Trey Ralston scoring a pair of goals within 11 seconds of each other and then Kiviniemi scoring. Messiah countered with three goals of their own. Kiviniemi scored his 100th career goal with 5:19 on the clock off a pass from Carson Frey to put the Dutchmen up 10-8.Hayden Carling scored his second goal of the season before the Falcons scored to make it a 11-9 game at halftime.
 
Messiah scored the first two goals of the second half to tie the game up. Kiviniemi scored before the Falcons took their first lead of the game with back-to-back goals. Kiviniemi scored his fifth goal of the game to even the score up at 13 heading into the fourth quarter. Messiah scored five times in the first eight minutes to build a 18-13 advantage. The teams traded goals the rest of the way with Bollinger and Hughes scoring for the Dutchmen.
 
Inside the Box Score

• Kiviniemi became the fourth Dutchmen to score 100 career goals and is now tied for second all-time in program history. He led the team with seven points on five goals and two assists. It is the fourth time this year he has scored at least five goals in a game.
• Bollinger finished with three goals for his ninth hat trick of the season.
• Hughes had two goals and an assist while Frey dished out two assists and scored a goal.
• Ralston and Weathersby had a goal and an assist each.
• Gavin Porter won 16 faceoffs and led the team with seven ground balls.

Up Next
LVC will head to Maryland on Wednesday to face Hood College. The opening faceoff with be at 6:30 p.m. in Frederick.

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