WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Wilkes University football team suffered its first Landmark Conference loss of the season Saturday afternoon, falling to Lycoming College 31-21 at David Person Field at Girardi Stadium.

Wilkes falls to 4-3 on the year and 2-1 in Landmark play with the defeat, while Lycoming improves to 3-5 and 3-1 in conference play.

The Warriors took only one play from scrimmage to open the scoring, striking on a 63-yard pass to Karson Kline for the early 7-0 lead. From there the defenses settled into the game, trading punts on consecutive drives.

Midway through the first, the Warriors recovered a Wilkes fumble deep in Lycoming territory, but the Colonel defense held strong in return forcing a turnover on downs thanks to a J'Vier Johnson (Easton, PA/Easton Area) pass breakup. At the end of the first, the score was 7-0 Warriors.

Lycoming started to drive towards the end of the first quarter and finished the drive to start the second with another touchdown pass to go up 14-0. The Wilkes offense responded with big chunk plays from Shawn McCullough (Upper Darby, PA/Upper Darby) and Shane Reed (Hammonton, NJ/Saint Joseph) of 22 and 25 yards respectively, setting up a 12-yard Ben Contella (Wayne, NJ/Wayne Hills) touchdown run to put the Colonels on the board 14-7.

With just under one minute left in the half, Lycoming took advantage of a bad snap for punter Peter Zarafonitis (Staten Island, NY/New Dorp) and put up a field goal as time expired, taking a 17-7 lead into halftime.

Cooper King (Northampton, PA/Northampton) and the Colonels got off to a hot start in the second half, as King connected with Juju Fears (Easton, PA/Easton Area) on a 40-yard touchdown grab in the back of the endzone to bring Wilkes within a score, 17-14. The hosts then responded with a touchdown of their own, a one-yard rush from Michael VanHorn, to extend the lead again to 24-14.

King and the Colonels marched down the field looking for a score again, aided by a 29-yard reception for Justin Moore (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional). However, a King interception in the endzone halted their momentum. Lycoming capitalized on the turnover with a rushing touchdown to start the fourth quarter, putting the home team ahead 31-14.

The Colonels did not go down without a fight, as King found Rahmel Terry (Bethlehem, PA/Bethlehem Catholic) for the 10-yard touchdown pass with under seven minutes to play to make it 31-21.

Wilkes got the ball back with a minute left and King once again hit Terry for a big gain, this time a 27-yard completion, but it wasn't enough as the Warriors took the victory.

King finished the day completing 20 passes for a career-high 272 passing yards and two touchdowns. King also ran for a team-high 33 yards, just one yard more than Contella with 32. The senior was also sacked four times.

Moore was his top target with 60 yards on five catches, with Fears and Reed also crossing the 50-yard threshold at 58 and 53 respectively. On defense, Tallen Murray (Vineland, NJ/Saint Joseph Academy) led the way with 12 total tackles and two for loss. Sophomore Cohen Creswell (Winchester, VA/Millbrook) continued his breakout year as he notched 3.5 tackles for loss with a sack and forced fumble.

Joe Lyons led Lycoming with 23 completions for 327 yards and two touchdowns. Kline led all receivers with 107 yards on six catches with a touchdown, while Terrence Oliver rushed for a team-high 101 yards. Daniel Atsou led the Warrior defense with nine total tackles and one for loss.

The Colonels return to Schmidt Stadium for their next contest, a meeting with Juniata College for Senior Day on Saturday, November 1^st at 12:00 p.m.