WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team closed out the 2023 season Saturday afternoon at McCarthy Stadium with an 11-9 victory in the final Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) game against cross-town rival King's College before the Colonels move to the Landmark Conference next season.

Wilkes finished the season with a win over its rival, a 2-6 record in the MAC Freedom and 4-13 overall. King's finished the season 0-8 in the conference and 0-15 overall.

The Monarchs scored the first two goals of the game before the Colonels got in the goal column with just over two minutes left in the first quarter on a goal by Tucker Parmer (Ephrata, PA/Ephrata) to make it 2-1 as Dillon Kadis (McSherrystown, PA/Delone Catholic) assisted. King's would score the final goal of the first quarter on the man-up to hold a 3-1 lead after 15 minutes.

Luke Weakland (Sparks, MD/Hereford) scored his 16th goal of the season off an assist by Henry O'Connor (Baltimore, MD/Dulaney) and O'Connor netted his 12th goal of the year unassisted as the Colonels tied the game at 3-3 with 7:19 left in the second quarter. King's scored on the man-up with 1:34 left until half and again right before the ending horn of the second quarter to lead 5-3 at the break.

Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) opened the third quarter with three-consecutive goals to earn a hat trick, his third of the season, and put Wilkes ahead 6-5. The goals brought his season total to 18. Colby Opromolla (Patterson, NY/Carmel) assisted on Hartka's first two strikes and then Kadis assisted on the third. Parmer added his second goal of the game and fifth of the season to increase the Colonels lead to 7-5 with just under six minutes left in the third.

The Monarchs answered back to two goals to tie the game at 7-7 but Jacob Kudysch (Stratford, CT/Frank Scott Bunnell) netted the go-ahead goal and his fifth of the year with 11 ticks left in the third quarter as Wilkes led 8-7.

Opromolla scored to make it 9-7 with 11:38 left in the fourth. King's answered back with just over eight minutes left to make the score 9-8. With 5:08 remaining Opromolla netted his second of the game and 18th of the season to give the Colonels its two-goal lead back.

Kadis scored off Opromolla's third assist of the game for his 13th of the year as Wilkes took its first three-goal lead with 3:59 left. Ryan Lynch scored his fifth goal of the game for King's with 1:14 left to make it 11-9 but Luke Wawrzynek (Harleysville, PA/Souderton Area) won the ensuing faceoff and picked up the ground ball to allow Wilkes to run out the close for the victory.

Hartka led Wilkes with three goals while Opromolla led the Colonels with five total points on two goals and three assists. Hartka and Opromolla tied for the team lead on the season with 18 goals while Opromolla led Wilkes with 36 points and 18 assists. Parmer added two goals while Kadis had one goal and two assists for three points. O'Connor had two points on one goal and one assist. Weakland and Kudysch tallied one goal each.

Opromolla and Wawrzynek led Wilkes in the game with five ground balls. Parmer, Michael Rauch (Jackson, NJ/Jackson), and Brendan Keegan (Middletown, NY/Pine Bush) added four. Wawrzynek was 11-for-21 on face offs in the game.

Hunter Riley (Ballston Lake, NY/Shenendehowa Central), Keegan, and Rauch each had two caused turnovers in the game. Riley finished his career with 60 caused turnovers as he broke the program record. Keegan finished the year with 28 caused turnovers for the single-season record. Riley also finished second in career ground balls with 162 after adding three more today.

Joseph Marino (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) made 12 saves in the victory for a .571 save percentage in the game. The 12 saves brought his season total to 236 which was just shy of the single-season program record of 241.

Matt Wall started and allowed seven goals while making eight saves over the first 39 minutes for the Monarchs. Joe Plachcinski allowed four goals with two saves in the final 21 minutes of action. Wall had a game-high seven ground balls and Ryan Dolphin had a game-high three caused turnovers for King's who were led by Lynch's five goals.

King's had 45 total shots to 41 for Wilkes but both teams had 21 shots on goal. Wilkes led 39-34 in ground balls and 11-10 in face offs. Wilkes was 18-for-25 on clears while King's was 24-for-31. The Colonels went 0-for-5 on the man-up while the Monarchs were 2-for-10.

The win over the Colonels cross-town rival concluded the 2023 season and the Colonels now look to 2024 and a move to the Landmark Conference.