Box Score

King's Comes Up Short Falling to Wilkes 44-32 in 17th Annual Mayor's Cup Game

Edwardsville, Pa--Dan Kempa racked up a school-record 237 yards receiving and earned King's Most Valuable Player honors, but it wasn't enough as the Monarchs dropped a 44-32 decision to crosstown rival Wilkes in the 17th annual Mayor's Cup game Saturday at Schmidt Sradium.

The scoring started early with Wilkes opening the game with a five-play, 55-yard drive. Tyler Bernsten, the Colonels' dual-threat quarterback set  up the first score with a 28-yard run all the way down to the King's 18. Bernsten then showed off his arm, capping the drive with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Dan Curry to put the Colonels up 7-0 just 2:12 into the contest.

The Monarchs came right back, opening their first drive with a 47-yard completion from Tyler Hartranft to Kempa to put the ball on the Wilkes 18. After a pair of Kyle McGrath rushes, Hartranft found Kempa again for a 14-yard scoring strike. Kevin Mulvilhill had his extra-point attempt blocked to make the score 7-6 Colonels.

Wilkes extended its lead just two plays later on a 46-yard rush by Patrick Ingulli with 9:50 left in the first quarter. King's was moving the ball on its second possession, but the drive came to an abrupt end when Hartranft had his pass intercepted in the end zone by Marcus Leaf.

The Colonels marched the ball down the field with a 14-play, 80 yard drive, capped by a 19-yard pass from Bernsten to Jonathan Conklin to push the Wilkes lead to 21-6 with just 21 seconds to play in the first quarter.

King's took over at its own 35-yard line and put together a scoring drive of its own. The Monarchs moved the ball to the Wilkes 29 before committing a pair of false starts and an illegal block penalty to set up a third-and-33 from their own 38. After a personal foul call on Wilkes the Monarchs cashed in with a 31-yard hookup between Hartranft and Kempa on a fourth-and-nine play to cut the lead to 21-13 with just 5:03 to play in the half.

Wilkes scored on its next possession, using a 38-yard strike from Bernsten to Conklin to set up the Colonel offense at the King's 21. P.J. Incremona would then punch it in from the one-yard line to make the score 28-13 with 2:38 on the clock.

On King's ensuing possession, Wilkes'  J.T. Keer stepped in front of a Hartranft pass to secure an interception and set the Colonels up with the ball at the King's 40. Wilkes only needed 1:11 to cash in when Bernsten called his own number for a four-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 35-13 with 1:17 to play in the second quarter.

A short kickoff set the Monarchs up with a scoring chance before the half. On a second-down play, Hartranft found Kempa for a touchdown for the third time in the first half, this time on a 51-yarder, to keep the Monarchs close and set the halftime score at 35-20.

After trading punts to open the third quarter, King's was able to move the football down to the Wilkes 23 but lost out on a scoring opportunity when the drive stall and the Colonels took over on downs. Wilkes was able to take advantage when Bernsten faked a handoff up the middle and rushed around the left end for 51 yards and his second rushing score of the game. After the conversion kick, the Colonels built a 42-20 edge with 0:26 left in the third quarter.

King's battled back in final stanza, using eight plays to travel 68 yards, keyed by a pair of first-down catches by Kempa to move the ball all the way to the Colonel one. Hartranft was able to push through on a quarterback sneak to cut the lead to 42-26 with 10:52 remaining. The Monarchs, however, failed to convert on the two-point conversion.

On the next possession Wilkes faced a third-and-eight from their own 31 when Tyler Struckus intercepted Bernsten to set up the Monarchs with the ball with 9:24 to play. Once again it was Kempa that made the big play hauling in a 29-yard pass from Hartranft to put the ball at the Wilkes seven. Two plays later McGrath found pay dirt with a one-yard rush to cut the lead to 42-32 with 2:22 to go. On the two-point conversion Wilkes bottled up the Monarch receivers and Leaf picked off a desperation pass by Hartranft and took it back 100 yards for the defensive two-point conversion to set the final score at 44-32.

Kempa tallied 10 catches, the second-highest single-game total in King's history, and three touchdowns to solidify his MVP honor. His 237 receiving yards broke the previous King's record of 209 yards by Mike Verbitski against Springfield in 2009.  Along with his receiving yardage, Kempa added 85 kick return yards and 17 punt return yards to amass 339 all-purpose yards for the game.

Hartranft finished the game with a King's-record 27 completions on 40 attempts and became the first quarterback in King's history to eclipse the 400-yard passing mark, concluding the game with 408 yards. McGrath was the Monarchs' leading rusher with 81 yards on 24 carries and finished the season with 960 yards on the ground.

Defensively the Monarchs were paced by Jake Ksiaziewicz with 12 tackles and one pass breakup. Senior Ryan Kelly tallied 10 tackles and one sack. Ryan Cordingly closed out his King's career with eight tackles including two stops for a loss. Kris Matthews also made eight tackles.

King's outgained the Colonels on the game 518-437 including a 408-185 edge in passing yardage. The Monarchs converted 6-of-13 on third down and 3-of-4 fourth down in the game. King's finished the year 2-8 overall and 2-7 in the MAC.