EDWARDSVILLE – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team nearly defeated Eastern University for the first time since the program rebirth but a comeback by Eastern was capped off in overtime as the Eagles won 10-9 at Schmidt Stadium Wednesday afternoon. It is the second overtime loss of the year for the Colonels and their second consecutive tight 10-9 Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) loss.

The defeat drops Wilkes to 1-2 in the MAC Freedom and 7-5 overall. Eastern improved to 3-0 in the conference and 7-6 overall.

The Colonels shot out of the gate to take a 4-0 lead after the first quarter. JT Weitzel (Hampstead, MD/North Carroll) started the scoring with his fifth of the season just 2:08 into the game. Nico Lorenzo (Howell, NJ/Howell) scored the lone man-up goal for either team in the game at the 7:27 mark of the first to put Wilkes up 2-0. Eric Ormsby (Warwick, NY/Warwick Valley) then scored with 4:13 left in the quarter off an assist from John Wink (Glenside, PA/Abington) and then netted his second of the game off a pass from Ethan Weaver (Olney, MD/James Hubert Blake) with just six ticks left in the quarter to put the Colonels up 4-0.

Wink's 44th goal of the year came off an assist from Weaver with 13:34 left in the second quarter and made it 5-0. Alex Myers (Cortland, NY/Cortland) made it 6-0 just 43 seconds later.

Eastern finally cracked the scoreboard at the 11:36 mark of the second quarter and scored again to make it 6-2. Myers netted his 18th of the year off Wink's 26th assist to put Wilkes back up five goals with 8:08 remaining until halftime. The Eagles closed with three straight tallies including one with 13 seconds left to send the game into the halftime break with Wilkes leading 7-5.

Connor Daly's (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Twp.) 21st strike of the season put Wilkes up 8-5 just 1:04 into the third quarter. Weaver picked up the assist on the play. Eastern then scored three times within a stretch of 44 seconds to tie the score at 8-8 with 5:59 left in the third. The visitors then gained their first lead with a goal by Hassan Mackey at the 3:44 mark.

Ormsby then capped his first career hat trick to even the score at the 3:03 mark. Weaver picked up his fourth assist of the game and 18th of the season on the play as the freshmen duo connected for Ormsby's 13th goal.

The score would remain tied 9-9 through the rest of the third and the full fourth quarter as the conference game needed to head to a four-minute overtime period to be decided. Carter Whittemore (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) made seven of his career-high tying 19 saves during the fourth quarter including one with two seconds remaining to keep the Colonels alive.

Eastern won the faceoff in overtime and hit the post with a shot at the 2:58 mark. After an Eastern turnover Wilkes called a timeout but turned the ball over themselves. Mark Buannic then connected for the game-winner following an Eastern timeout with 1:21 left in the overtime period to cap his hat trick.

Weaver led Wilkes with four points on his assists while Ormsby led with three goals. Wink added three points on one goal and two assists. Whittemore added a team-high seven ground balls to go with his 19 saves and two caused turnovers. James Peaney (Forked River, NJ/Lacey Twp.) led the Colonels with three caused turnovers. Andrew Moynihan (Easton, MA/Lawrence Academy) went 11-for-22 on faceoffs.

The Colonels will look to rebound from two tight conference losses when they travel to Delaware Valley University on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. MAC Freedom game.