WILKES-BARRE, PA – For the first time since the program rebirth in 2016 the Wilkes University men's lacrosse team has opened Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) play with a victory. The Colonels went on the road to defeat their cross-town rival King's College by an 8-5 score at McCarthy Stadium Wednesday night.

Wilkes improves to 7-3 overall this season and start 1-0 for the first time in MAC Freedom action. King's fell to 2-7 overall and 0-1 in the league. Wilkes has now won the past two years against King's to even the series at 2-2 over the past four seasons.

The Colonels allowed a season-low five goals as Carter Whittemore (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) made 13 saves and had a season-high .722 save percentage. Andrew Moynihan (Easton, MA/Lawrence Academy) was perfect on faceoffs as the freshman went 16-for-16 to give the Colonels control of the ball.

Connor Daly (Oakhurst, NJ/Ocean Twp.) led the Wilkes offense with three goals and one assist for four points.

It was freshman Ethan Weaver (Olney, MD/James Hubert Blake) who opened the scoring at the 7:46 mark of the first quarter for Wilkes. King's would tie the score four minutes later and the first quarter would end with the score tied 1-1.

Weaver broke the tie as he recorded his first multi-goal game of his career. His second unassisted goal of the game came with 4:45 showing on the second quarter clock and was the only goal of the period as Wilkes took a 2-1 lead into halftime.

The Monarchs tied the game just 2:10 into the third quarter but then John Wink (Glenside, PA/Abington), who led the nation in points-per-game leading into the contest, netted his 43rd goal of the season to put Wilkes ahead 3-2 with 11:55 left in the third. Daly's first goal of the game gave the Colonels the first multi-goal lead of the contest with the tally coming on the man-up.

Daly then scored two more times on the man advantage at the 5:06 and 4:27 marks of the third quarter to push the Wilkes lead to 6-2. Wink assisted on the first with Weaver picking up the assist on the final Daly goal.

King's would score on the man-up just 13 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 6-3 but one minute later Eric Ormsby (Warwick, NY/Warwick Valley) struck off a pass from Daly for his ninth goal of the season. The Monarchs would score the next two goals to make it 7-5 with 7:36 still remaining but Alex Myers (Cortland, NY/Cortland) scored to end the King's rally. The freshman's goal was the 14th of the season for him and closed the scoring at the 3:52 mark.

Wilkes led 31-26 in groundballs and were 3-for-5 on the man-up while also holding a slim 39-36 advantage in shots.

Moynihan led Wilkes with eight groundballs while Jack O'Connell (Linwood, NJ/St. Augustine Prep.) added seven.

Gabe Vansuch led King's with three points on two goals and one assist.

The Colonels return to the field on Saturday as they stay on the road for another MAC Freedom game this time coming at Manhattanville College with a first faceoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in Purchase, N.Y.