WILKES-BARRE, PA (April 20, 2024) -- Ryan Barnes (Sr.) collected a career milestone of 100 ground balls in the loss to Misericordia on Senior Saturday. The Monarchs fell 21-9 to the Cougars at McCarthy Stadium. 

Misericordia (8-7, 3-2 MAC Freedom) found the back of the net first at 12:36 of the first quarter. King's (2-10, 1-4 MAC Freedom) came back and took control with a faceoff win by Geno Casceillo (Sr.) to help Ryan Barnes (Sr.) net his first goal of the afternoon at 12:16. After a turnover by the Cougars, the Monarchs went on to score another tally, this time by Ben Spencer (Jr.) to put them up one at 9:36. Misericordia was not going silent and scored back-to-back goals with 6:09 remaining in the first quarter. King's stayed strong for five minutes with several shot opportunities. Though the Cougars found back of the net two more times to create a 5-2 lead heading into the second quarter. 

The second quarter was scoreless for five minutes when Jon Wiedow (Sr.) netted an unassisted goal to help create some momentum for the Monarchs at 9:35. King's pushed on and capitalized on a Misericordia turnover with Barnes adding another tally at 8:02 to inch closer to their visitors. The Cougars answered with a 3-0 run to end the third quarter. Heading into halftime the Monarchs were down 8-4. 

Misericordia maintained their edge on their hosts with four straight goals to start the second half. At 6:37, Ryan Lynch (So.) scored an unassisted goal to put King's back on the board. The Cougars ultimately added four more tallies to widen their lead. At the end of the third, the Monarchs were down 16-5. 

To start the fourth and final quarter, both adversaries traded points as King's witnessed Barnes score his third goal for a hat trick and Spencer added his second tally with a player-up at 10:00. The Monarchs stayed strong, but Misericordia scored two more goals with 5:51 left on the clock. With one last push, King's went on a 2-1 jolt that included tallies by Lynch and John Wall (Jr.) before the final buzzer. The Monarchs lost 21-9 in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom contest. 

King's finished with 44 shots, 35 ground balls, 21 face off wins, and went 12-15 in clears. Barnes led the team with three goals and three ground balls. Lynch and Spencer were right behind with two goals each. Casceillo collected a career-best of 18 ground balls and went 21-28 in faceoffs. Wiedow and Josh Hilpp (Fy.) had two caused turnovers and three ground balls each. Jackson Campbell (Sr.) recorded 10 saves for the day in net. 

Misericordia ended with 48 shots, 32 ground balls, and went 20-22 in clears. Jared Pelliccione earned seven goals on 10 shots. Connor Bevan had eight points with four goals and four assists. Trey Stasse created five caused turnovers. Starting goalkeeper Chris Dindino produced 18 saves with five ground balls. 

The Monarchs will return to McCarthy stadium on Wednesday, April 24^th at 7 p.m. to take on Arcadia. The squad will finish the regular season on the road as they will battle Delaware Valley at 1 p.m. on Saturday April 27^th.