WILKES-BARRE – After taking a 2-0 lead through one period of play, visiting William Smith College broke open the game scoring five unanswered goals in the second frame on way to a 9-2 United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) victory over Wilkes University on Saturday afternoon at the Toyota SportsPlex.
 
Wilkes dropped to 4-13-1 overall and 3-8-1 in UCHC play following the home defeat. William Smith improved to 15-7 overall and 11-2 in conference contests.
 
William Smith opened the game scoring three minutes into the contest and three minutes before the first period ended, both even strength goals, to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
 
From there the Herons added five unanswered tallies in the second twenty minutes of play including a pair of power play goals to push their advantage to 7-0 after two.
 
Wilkes responded 7:48 into the third period when Ashley Murry (Morgantown, PA) took a pass up the right side from Quinn Rodefeld (Blaine, MN) and rifled home a shot past the William Smith goalie to make it 7-1. Six minutes later Julie Patterson (Trenton, NJ) scored an even strength goal thanks to a helper from Abigail Barcless (Hamilton, NJ) to cut the deficit to five as Wilkes trailed 7-2 with seven minutes remaining.
 
William Smith added two more goals in the game's final four minutes to seal the 9-2 UCHC road victory
 
Allyson Joly (Lincoln, RI) finished with 51 saves in net for Wilkes including several point-blank stops in the crease.
 
Wilkes returns to the ice Friday when the Colonels travel to Nazareth College for a UCHC matchup starting at 3:30p.m.