DALLAS, PA – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team had two first half leads during Wednesday night's Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) road contest at Misericordia University but saw the Cougars pull away for a 15-6 victory at Mangelsdorf Field.

With the loss Wilkes dropped to 6-7 overall and to 1-3 in MAC Freedom action while Misericordia improved to 10-1 overall and 3-1 in conference games.
The Colonels held leads at 2-1 and 4-3 before the Cougars outscored the visitors 12-2 over the final 31 minutes of action.

Misericordia started the scoring just 46 seconds in the game but Matthew Bush (Lake Hopatcong, NJ/Jefferson Twp.) responded with his 12^th goal of the season to tie the score with 11:27 left in the first quarter. Nicholas Ruggiero (Califon, NJ/Voorhees) then scored on the man-up off an assist from Jeremy Kachel (Ephrata, PA/Ephrata) to give Wilkes the 2-1 lead with 4:41 left in the first. The Cougars would tie the score just over a minute later as the first quarter would end with the score at 2-2.

After Misericordia took a 3-2 lead early in the second quarter Wilkes struck twice to take a 4-3 lead. First John Luna (Valley Center, CA/Valley Center) netted his 16^th goal of the season off an assist from John Wink (Glenside, PA/Abington) with 9:11 left and then Nico Lorenzo (Howell, NJ/Howell) put away his 27^th goal on the year unassisted with 4:11 remaining. Two late second quarter goals by the Cougars gave the home team a 5-4 advantage at halftime.

Ruggiero struck for his second goal of the game and 30^th of the season 2:33 into the third quarter to tie the game at five with an assist from Lorenzo. Misericordia then scored five consecutive goals in just over a two minute stretch to go ahead 10-5. Wink stopped the Cougars run with his 31^st strike of the year off a pass from Ruggiero with 6:27 left in the third quarter but Misericordia scored the final two goals in the third frame and all three in the fourth quarter to pull away to the victory.

Ruggiero led the way for the Colonels attack with a three-point night on two goals and one assist. Wink and Lorenzo each had two points on one goal and one assist.

Carter Whittemore (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) made 13 saves including nine by halftime. He also led all players with eight ground balls.

Wilkes went 1-of-7 on extra-man opportunities, including 1-of-6 in the first half, as they missed out on taking advantage of the man-up situations. Both teams were successful on 16 clears but Misericordia was more efficient at 16-of-19 while Wilkes was 16-of-27.

Robert Wagner led the Cougars with six points on five goals and one assist while Patrick Kellish added five points on four goals and one assist.

Wilkes closes out its regular season road slate with a MAC Freedom contest at Eastern University Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in St. Davids, Pa.