EDWARDSVILLE – Five Different Colonels posted four or more points as the Wilkes University men's lacrosse team made its home debut a fine one after posting a 21-9 non-conference victory over cross-town rival King's College Wednesday night at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes improved to 2-4 overall following its first home win of the season. King's fell to 2-3 overall on the year.
 
Tim Hartka (Phoenix, MD/Calvert Hall) began the scoring with a strike at 9:37 thanks to an assist from Bradley Smith (Northampton, PA/Northampton Area). After King's tied the score at one, the Colonels rattled off four unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead after one quarter of play. Anthony DiFrancesco (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) scored twice along with goals from Oscar Cline (New Paltz, NY/New Paltz) and Austin Sosnovik (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh).
 
The Wilkes lead continued to grow as the Colonels scored the first two goals of the second frame with Cline notching his second of the game and DiFrancesco finishing off his hat trick off an assist from A. Sosnovik which marked his 100^th career point as the Colonels led 7-1.  King's scored with 7:14 left in the first half before DiFrancesco found the back of the net for the fourth time in the first 30 minutes. A. Sosnovik finished off the first half scoring for Wilkes with an assist from brother Stone Sosnovik (New Tripoli, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) with 57 seconds left as Wilkes held a 9-2 advantage at the break.
 
Wilkes continued to pour on the scoring in the third quarter with eight more tallies in the frame including three goals from Hartka including his 100^th career point. DiFrancesco scored three more times in the final frame tying the single game record of seven goals in the process.
 
DiFrancesco finished with a team-high eight points on seven goals and one assist while A. Sosnovik and S. Sosnovik added six points each on two goals and four assists. Hartka posted five points on four goals and one helper while Ben Byers (Harding, PA/Wyoming Area) finished with four points on three goals and one assist. Cline contributed three goals to round out the top offensive players for the Colonels.
 
Wilkes outshot King's 55-38 in the win while converting 12-of-20 clears. Each team finished with 38 total ground balls.
 
Caleb Miller (Mohrsville, PA/Schuylkill Valley) led all Wilkes goalies in the win starting and finishing with six saves.
 
Wilkes continues its home stretch Saturday with a matchup against Mount Saint Mary College at 12:00 p.m. at Schmidt Stadium.