New Wilkes coach David Biever holds the Mayor’s Cup after winning his debut with the Colonels by beating King’s on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
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Wilkes player celebrate their 43- 28 win over rival King’s on Saturday. The Colonels now play in a different conference than the Monarchs, but the rivals still face off on the field.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Wilkes celebrates winning the Mayor’s Cup 43-28 over King’s on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Wilkes’ Elijah Jules celebrates his 39-yard touchdown run in the third quarter on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown awarded the Mayor’s Cup to Wilkes for the win over King’s.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — A big arm, making some big plays — when it came time to hand out the MVP award, it could only be Xavier Powell’s name being called.
The Wilkes quarterback threw for 283 yards and four touchdowns, and added a fifth touchdown on the ground as the Colonels defeated King’s 43-28 to win the Mayor’s Cup on Saturday night at McCarthy Stadium.
The senior signal-caller wasted no time showing off his arm: in just the first quarter alone, Powell connected on touchdown passes of 51, 58 and 54 yards to three different receivers.
Recognizing man coverage, Powell took advantage of the defense and was able to pick apart the King’s secondary early and often.
“That’s all attributed to the offensive coordinator, Coach (Matt) Rogers…he draws these plays up, he’s a great offensive mind,” Powell said.
First-year head coach David Biever had plenty of faith in his quarterback to take those shots against the coverage King’s was throwing at him.
“I plan on letting him rip as long as he can,” Biever said. “We get 1-on-1s, they play us man-to-man, we’re going to take as many shots as we can.”
This year’s Mayor’s Cup started out more like a track meet than a football game, with five touchdowns scored in the first 15 minutes as Wilkes took a 21-14 lead over King’s at the end of the first.
King’s quarterback Russell Minor-Shaw looked to use his legs to do damage and found success; his five-yard run gave King’s a 7-0 lead early in the game.
He added two touchdown passes in the first half, one to halfback Jayon Hailey and one to tight end Ryan McCombs, and kept the Monarchs within one score heading to halftime.
But the Colonels defense regrouped and effectively shut down Minor-Shaw and the rest of the King’s offense: the only points scored by King’s in the second half were on a EJ Schreiner touchdown catch with only a minute left to play and the game already out of reach for the Monarchs.
With Wilkes leading 36-21 at the start of the fourth quarter, the Colonel defense made its biggest play of the night.
King’s had driven all the way into the red zone looking to make it a one-score game, only for a Minor-Shaw pass to be picked off by cornerback Donell Mackey-Woodson.
Powell put the game on ice with his fourth touchdown pass of the game, finding Devin Higgins with 4:12 left to make it a three-score game, all but locking up the rivalry win.
The Wilkes win brings the Mayor’s Cup back to campus, avenging a King’s win in the final seconds of the game a season ago.
Wilkes will take on RPI in the Colonels’ home opener next Saturday. King’s will play Misericordia.
Wilkes 43, King’s 28
Wilkes`21`8`7`7 — 43
King’s`14`7`0`7 — 28
First Quarter
KC — Russell Minor-Shaw 5 run (Delaney Hifferty kick) 11:28
WIL — Justin Moore 51 pass from Xavier Powell (Nick Volpone kick) 8:45
WIL — Juju Fears 58 pass from Powell (Volpone kick) 6:57
KC — Jayon Hailey 34 pass from Minor-Shaw (Hifferty kick) 3:14
WIL — Zane Grover 54 pass from Powell (Volpone kick) 0:16
Second quarter
WIL — Powell 3 run (Tallen Murray pass from Tyler Wetzel) 12:30
KC — Ryan McCombs 5 pass from Minor-Shaw (Hifferty kick) 7:00
Third quarter
WIL — Elijah Jules 39 run (Volpone kick) 12:15
Fourth quarter
WIL — Devin Higgins 14 pass from Powell (Volpone kick) 4:12
KC — EJ Schreiner 6 pass from Minor-Shaw (Hifferty kick) 1:03
Team statistics`WIL`KC
First downs`18`23
Rushes-yards`29-142`32-196
Passing yards`283`255
Total yards`425`451
Passing`11-18-0`28-35-1
Sacked-yards lost`0-0`0-0
Punts-avg.`4-45.8`4-27.3
Fumbles-lost`1-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`2-30`9-99
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — WIL, Jules 14-84, Powell 11-65, Jason Dean 1-2, Shawn McCullough 1-(minus-2), Moore 1-(minus-6). KC, Minor-Shaw 12-81, Hailey 10-74, Brennan Robinson 10-41.
PASSING — WIL, Powell 11-18-0-283. KC, Minor-Shaw 28-35-1-255.
RECEIVING — WIL, Jules 2-66, Grover 3-52, Fears 1-58, Moore 1-51, Diggins 2-35, Dean 1-11. KC, Hailey 5-65, Tony Brinson 4-62, Schreiner 5-49, Mike DiGregorio 7-45, McCombs 5-26, Robinson 2-8.
MISSED FGs — none.
INTERCEPTIONS — WIL, Donell Mackey-Wilson 1-0. KC, none.