EDWARDSVILLE – The Wilkes University football team cruised to victory over the Lycoming College Warriors, defeating their longtime rivals 53-28 at Schmidt Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Colonels improve to 4-2 on the year and 2-0 in Landmark Conference play, while Lycoming fall to 2-3 and open their Landmark slate 0-1.

Wilkes opened the scoring on their first drive as Elijah Jules (Red Bank, NJ/Red Bank Catholic) unleashed a 60-yard run on his second carry of the day to set the Colonels up in the redzone, and finished the drive off with a 10 yard run. A Tyler Wetzel (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) two-point conversion later and the home team held an early 8-0 lead.

Late in the first quarter, a punt off the side of the foot of Lycoming punter Mike Sipps set the Colonels up on the Warrior 20-yard line. The Warrior defense held the Colonels to a field goal attempt, and Volpone's kick was true to give Wilkes an 11-0 lead early in the second quarter.

It wouldn't take long for Wilkes to get the ball back as Donell Mackey-Woodson (Hartford, CT/Southington) caught Lycoming quarterback Will Fish hook, line, and sinker for the interception in Wilkes territory. The Colonels drove into the Warrior redzone again and came away with another Volpone field goal to extend their lead to 14-0.

After another punt, Lycoming finally came up with a turnover of their own to get the ball in Wilkes territory. Angel Ramos (Allentown, PA/Parkland) and the Wilkes defense had other plans, sacking Fish for a loss of 13 yards and forcing another punt. After driving into the Warrior's half of the field, the Colonel offense got tricky for the score. Zane Grover (East Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) threw his third touchdown pass of the year to a wide-open Xavier Powell (Poughkeepsie, NY/Arlington), who dove into the endzone for the 28-yard touchdown. Following the extra point, the Colonels took a 21-0 lead.

The Warriors finally got on the scoreboard with a touchdown on their next drive, with Fish finding Ross Eyer for the score. On the ensuing kickoff, Rahmel Terry (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) restored the 21-point Wilkes lead with a 93-yard kick return score to make it 28-7 in a matter of seconds, a scoreline that would read the same at halftime.

After a turnover on downs on Wilkes' opening drive, Mackey-Woodson got the ball right back on the next drive from Fish and returned it 47-yards to paydirt. Punter Alex Orlando (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) got in on the scoring fun with a two-point conversion run to make the score 36-7 Colonels.

The suffocating Colonel defense forced a Lycoming turnover on downs on their next drive, and the offense punctuated the stop with a Jules touchdown on the other end of the field to push the lead to 43-7.

Mackey-Woodson completed his hat trick of interceptions with his second of the quarter, taking it all the way from the Wilkes two-yard line to the house, growing the lead to 50-7 at the end of the third quarter.

After a Lycoming touchdown, Volpone drilled his third field goal of the game on the Colonels' first possession of the fourth quarter to make it a 53-14 game. From there, the Wilkes starters got a well-earned rest, and the Colonels cruised to a 53-28 win.

Wilkes ran for 244 total yards, including a career-high 198 yards from Jules to mark his third game with over 100 yards rushing, as well as two touchdowns to cap off his impressive day. Under center, Powell threw for 134 yards on nine completions. Jimmy Johnson (Fallston, MD/Fallston) was his top target with two catches for 66 yards.

Defensively, Angel Ramos (Allentown, PA/Parkland) led the Colonels with eight total tackles and two for loss with one sack. Mackey-Woodson was the leading pass-catcher on either team collecting 145 yards on his three interceptions, bringing his season total to six.

On special teams, Nick Volpone (Delco, PA/Ridley) went three-for-three on field goals and made four PATs, making the program record for career made PATs his own at 88 and counting.

Jay Huber was Lycoming's leading passer with 98 yards on 11 completions with one touchdown and one interception. Karson Kline led the receivers with 45 yards, while Terrence Oliver picked up 86 yards on the ground. Defensively, Jeramaiah Cooper and Tyler Marshall shared the team-high in tackles with six each.

The Colonels continue Landmark Conference play next week as they travel to face Keystone College on Saturday, October 19 at 12:00 p.m.