WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's lacrosse team opened a 6-3 lead after one, then held on late despite a fourth quarter rally from host King's College as the Colonels posted an 11-8 non-conference victory over the Monarchs Wednesday night at McCarthy Stadium.
 
Wilkes improved to 2-4 overall following the road win, while King's remained winless standing 0-5 on the season.
 
Austin Sosnovik (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) began the six-goal first quarter for Wilkes thanks to an assist from Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) at 12:42. Jackson Casper (Bel Air, MD/Bel Air) made it 2-0 one minute later notching his eighth goal of the season with another helper from Hartka. Hartka got on the scoring end to push the advantage to 3-0 at 10:41 and Stone Sosnovik (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) scored back-to-backs goals at 9:59 and 8:20 with the second coming on the man-up advantage as Wilkes led 5-0 early.
 
King's kept things close with three straight goals over the next four minutes before Casper added his second strike of the quarter with an assist from A. Sosnovik to give the Colonels a three-point lead after one frame.
 
The Wilkes offense continued to roll into the second quarter as S. Sosnovik and Hartka scored back-to-back as the only two goals before the halftime horn sounded with the Colonels leading 8-3.
 
A. Sosnovik scored his second goal of the game off an assist from Casper two minutes into the third quarter to push the lead to 9-3. The Monarchs refused to go away easy scoring two straight times to cut the deficit to 9-5 with 4:07 left in the third. Anthony DelDuca (Westchester, NY/Westlake) ended the run with a man-up goal at 3:41 thanks to an assist from A. Sosnovik.
 
A. Sosnovik scored the final Wilkes goal with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter with an assist credited to DelDuca and the Colonels leading 11-6. King's scored two more times, but the Wilkes defense anchored down and held on to the three-goal win on the road.
 
King's held a slight 43-39 shot advantage. The Colonels were strong in clearing the ball converting 22-of-26 attempts.
 
The Sosnovik brothers combined for nine points with both recording hat tricks on the night. A. Sosnovik finished with three goals and three assists while Stone posted three goals. Hartka followed with two goals and two helpers, while Casper added two goals and one assist.
 
John Wall led King's with four points on two goals and two assists.
 
Caleb Miller (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) recorded the win in goal for Wilkes finishing with 12 saves.
 
Wilkes continues its non-conference schedule Saturday when the Colonels host Hood College at 1:00 p.m. at Schmidt Stadium.