The Castleton University men's lacrosse team dropped its home-opener on Saturday afternoon, falling to Utica by a final score of 13-6 at Dave Wolk Stadium. The Pioneers outscored Castleton 8-1 in the second half after the two teams went into halftime tied at 5-5. The Spartans fall to 1-3 with the loss, while Utica improves to 3-3 on the season. Utica outshot Castleton 39-26 in the contest, including a 25-13 edge in shots on goal. The Pioneers won the ground ball battle 41-25 and went 2-of-5 on man-up opportunities while Castleton was 0-for-2 with an extra attacker. Utica also held a narrow, 12-11 edge in face-off wins. Tyler Crowningshield and Jason Sedell each netted a pair of goals for Castleton, while Wyatt Pickrell and Cameron Russell added scored of their own for the Spartans. Kyle Lutinski and Colin Clark added assists on the day, while Luc Issa racked up nine ground balls and three caused turnovers for the defense. Brandon Myron stopped five shots with five goals allowed in the opening half before being relieved by Maxx Ingison, who suffered his first loss of the season for the Spartans. Ingison stopped seven shots while allowing eight scores. Dale Wagner scored four times for Utica with each of his goals coming in the second half of play. John Hanlon added a hat trick of his own for the Pioneers, while James Daniele had two goals and an assist for a three-point day. Kevin Parisi led the defense with eight ground balls, followed by Andrew Yozzo with seven ground-ball pickups. Castleton got off to a good start in the first quarter, opening the scoring just five minutes into the game when Crowningshield buried a pass from Clark to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. After Hanlon leveled the game at 1-1 with 8:44 left in the period, Pickrell answered for the Spartans just 44 seconds later to put Castleton back on top, 2-1. The lead stretched to 3-1 when Sedell notched his first score of the game, but Utica got it back to a one-goal game with 34 seconds to go in the quarter on a score by Craig DiSanton. Castleton jumped ahead 4-2 less than a minute into the second quarter when Sedell scored his second goal of the day on an assist from Lutinski. After more than five minutes of scoreless action, Daniele pulled Utica back within one with his seventh goal of the season. Crowningshield found his name on the scoresheet once more with 7:57 to play in the first half, giving the Spartans a 5-3 edge midway through the second quarter. Utica scored the final two goals of the half, both from the stick of Hanlon, sending the game into the break tied 5-5. The Pioneers opened the second stanza the same way they closed the first, scoring back-to-back goals just eight seconds apart, giving Utica a 7-5 lead less than two minutes into the third quarter. Russell stopped the bleeding with a goal less than a minute later, making it a 7-6 game. It was all Utica from that point, however, as the Pioneers capped the contest with six unanswered goals to pull away for a 13-6 final. Castleton returns to action on Tuesday at 5 p.m. with a home contest at Dave Wolk Stadium against Anna Maria.