EDWARDSVILLE – Visiting Moravian College jumped out to a 5-2 lead after one quarter and never trailed throughout despite a furious Wilkes University rally late on way to an 11-10 victory over the Colonels Wednesday afternoon at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes fell to 4-3 overall following the loss while Moravian improved to 2-2 on the year.
 
Cade Siddron put Moravian on the board first scoring an unassisted goal after a Wilkes slashing penalty with 13:36 left in the first quarter. James Carroll added to the Greyhounds lead scoring two minutes later off an assist from Mark Laratta.
 
John Wink (Glenside, PA/Abington) cut the Moravian advantage in half at the 6:59 mark of the frame beating the goalie from ten feet out after a slick pass from Jeremy Kachel (Ephrata, PA/Ephrata). Moravian answered back less than one minute later with another goal from Laratta off a Siddron helper to push the lead back to 3-1.
 
Nico Lorenzo (Howell, NJ/Howell) kept things close for the Colonels scoring the second Wilkes goal with 3:06 left in the first quarter. The rookie darted past two defenders and ripped a shot past the Greyhound keeper to the top right corner of the net. The back-and-forth scoring continued as Dominick Gurreri and Laratta scored unassisted in the final two minutes to give Moravian a 5-2 lead at the end of the first.
 
Wilkes took an early two-minute non-releasable penalty to start the second quarter and Moravian took advantage scoring once on the man-up situation extending its lead to 6-2.
 
Wink added his second strike of the game unassisted from the left side of the circle as Wilkes trailed 6-3 with 9:10 left until the break. Wilkes kept the pressure on in the attacking zone as John Luna (Valley Center, CA/Valley Center) broke free for a goal off an assist from Wink to bring the score to 6-4.
 
After each team traded opportunities in the attacking end, Carroll ripped a shot off the crossbar and into the net to push the advantage back to three goals at 7-4 with 3:23 left in the half. Carter Whittemore (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) made a big save on Moravian's last possession of the half stopping a point-blank shot to keep the Colonels within three at the break.
 
Nicholas Ruggiero (Califon, NJ/Voorhees) got things going early in the third quarter taking a Luna pass across the crease and finding the back of the net as Wilkes trailed 7-5. The scoring continued on both ends of the field over the next five minutes as Siddron scored for Moravian followed by an unassisted strike from Lorenzo, his second of the contest. Wink completed his hat trick at the 9:30 mark of the third taking a pass from Lorenzo before hitting the top left of the net to bring the Colonels to within one at 8-7.
 
Moravian responded three minutes later stopping the Wilkes scoring rally when Connor Hull scored just after a Colonel penalty expired to push the advantage to 9-7. Ruggiero came up big just before the third quarter clock expired blasting a shot from the top of the circle that found its way to the back of the net setting up the final frame of a one-point game.
 
Siddron finished off his hat trick with 10:00 left in the game scoring unassisted to keep the visitors ahead 10-8. The game went scoreless until the 2:44 mark when Wink notched his fourth goal of the game thanks to an assist from Kachel.
 
Moravian won the ensuing faceoff and added one more score with 1:31 left as Laratta became the second Greyhound to complete a hat trick in the game. Wilkes wasted little time converting a Moravian turnover to points on the ensuing faceoff as Ruggiero scored his third of the game to bring the Colonels back to within one 11-10 with :59 left.
 
Wilkes had one last shot at a tie with the ball in its attacking end with :22 but Lorenzo's shot at the top of the circle with :2 left was blocked and Moravian escaped with the victory.
 
Wink led all Wilkes attackers with five points on four goals and one assist. Ruggiero followed with three goals while Lorenzo and Luna each tallied three points.
 
Whittemore suffered his first loss of the year finishing with 11 saves playing all 60 minutes in net for Wilkes. MacLean Lincoln made eight stops for Moravian.
 
Wilkes remains idle until March 24 when the Colonels travel to Aurora, N.Y. for a matchup against Wells College at 1:00 p.m.