It’s been a tough road so far for the Dominican men’s lacrosse team, but the Penguins scored a huge victory on Saturday that very well may be looked at as a turning point for the program down the road.

Freshman attackman Kyle Mitchell scored a game-high four goals to lead Dominican to a come-from-behind, 10-9 victory over Mercy College in an NCAA Division II game in Mountain Lake, N.J.

The victory is the first in program history for Dominican over an East Coast-based NCAA team.

Freshman attackman Cameron Delapp added three points on two goals and one assist, freshman attackman Zach Rodriguez had a goal and two assists and sophomore middie Reed Upson finished with a goal and two assists to help the Penguins (2-5) snap a three-game losing streak.

Sophomore middie Matt Polizzi scored twice, and freshman attackman Jim Little had a goal and an assist to round out the offense for Dominican, which finished its four-game East Coast road trip 1-3.

Defensively, freshman goalie Sam Darrow saved nine shots.

In defeat, Alex Martello scored a game-high four goals for Mercy (1-3).

Dominican won the game despite losing every important statistical category. Mercy oushot Dominican, 34-21, had a 46-37 edge in ground balls and went 14-8 on face-offs. But the Penguins made the most of their chances.

Mercy looked like it would roll early when it went ahead 5-1 in the second quarter. But the Penguins responded with a 9-1 run over the next 39 minutes. Delapp’s second goal with 2:15 remaining in regulation gave Dominican a 10-6 lead.

Mercy answered with three goals in a 43-second stretch to come within one and made it 10-9 on a goal by Martello with 1:02 to play. But Dominican held on in the final minute.

“Coming back from being 5-1 down and going up 10-6 showed some character,” Dominican head coach Ned Webster said. “We made it a little too exciting at the end, which is a credit to Mercy’s heart, but our guys feel good about heading back to California with a win over a team from New York.”