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EDWARDSVILLE — With one more game in front of the hometown fans at Schmidt Field, a very senior-laden Wilkes football team made every final minute on their own turf count.
Xavier Powell and Elijah Jules combined for over 300 yards rushing and five touchdowns on the ground, as the Colonels locked up a second-place finish in the Landmark Conference with a 47-28 win over Moravian on Saturday afternoon.
Jules had 159 yards and three rushing touchdowns, while Powell finished just behind his running back with 153 yards rushing and two scores on the ground.
Powell wasn’t asked to do too much with his arm, but the quarterback did complete 10 passes for 106 yards and a touchdown pass to Devin Higgins right at the end of the first half, in which Wilkes flexed their muscle to take a 27-6 halftime lead over Moravian.
As a team, the Colonels ran the ball 51 times for 329 yards. On the other side, Moravian was held in negative rushing yardage all the way through the first three quarters, picking up some yardage with the game already out of hand in the final quarter to finish with 27 yards rushing.
“I thought we came out and played physical, that was our goal,” Wilkes coach David Biever said. “When those offensive linemen get running and rolling, it makes it fun for whoever’s carrying the football.”
Wilkes scored all 47 of their points in the second and third quarters; both teams held each other scoreless in the first quarter, and Moravian scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to make the final score a bit more respectable.
In between, the Greyhounds had no answers for Wilkes on either side of the ball, whether it was the Colonels rushing attack or their formidable defense, which came up with five sacks and a pick-six while taking the run game completely off the table for Moravian.
Jules got the scoring started with a short touchdown run early in the second quarter, but Moravian came down and took a 7-6 lead with quarterback Jared Jenkins finding Jordan Bingham for a touchdown.
That was the last splash the Greyhounds offense made for a while: Jules scored again on the ensuing possession, and then Leroy Marshall jumped a pass from Jenkins and took it about 40 yards the other way for a touchdown.
Wilkes tacked on one final touchdown, the Powell to Higgins connection, on a 80-yard drive that took just 50 seconds.
Powell had a long run on that drive to help Wilkes get into scoring range, and the senior signal-caller added an even bigger run on the first drive of the second half.
Breaking a tackle right around the line of scrimmage, Powell got to the next level and had nothing but space on a 43-yard touchdown run to make it a 33-6 ballgame.
Both Jules and Powell would add one more touchdown run each late in the third quarter before both were pulled, along with the rest of Wilkes’s senior-heavy starting lineup, in the fourth quarter.
The Colonels finished the regular season with a 7-3 record, going 5-1 in the Landmark Conference. They’ll head to Salem, Va. next Saturday to take on Washington and Lee in the Chesapeake Challenge Bowl Series.
Wilkes 47, Moravian 28
Moravian`0`7`7`14 — 28
Wilkes`0`26`21`0 — 47
Second quarter
WIL — Elijah Jules 2 run (run failed), 10:31
MOR — Jordan Bingham 13 pass from Jared Jenkins (Jack Corrigan kick), 7:51
WIL — Jules 10 run (Nick Volpone kick), 3:51
WIL — Leroy Marshall 40 interception return (Volpone kick), 2:21
WIL — Devin Higgins 1 pass from Xavier Powell (kick failed), 0:06
Third quarter
WIL — Powell 43 run (Volpone kick), 12:27
MOR — Bingham 64 pass from Jenkins (Corrigan kick), 11:29
WIL — Jules 10 run (Volpone kick), 6:46
WIL — Powell 5 run (Volpone kick), 1:02
Fourth quarter
MOR — Jenkins 3 run (Corrigan kick), 6:37
MOR — Joey Richmond 5 run (Corrigan kick), 2:36
Team statistics`MOR`WIL
First downs`22`27
Rushes-yards`26-27`51-329
Passing yards`316`111
Total yards`343`440
Passing`32-43-1`11-21-0
Sacked-yards lost`1-2`4-36
Punts-avg.`6-39.8`4-43
Fumbles-lost`0-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`10-98`9-109
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING —MOR, Richmond 7-18, Jed Bendekovits 2-12, Isiah Rico 4-5, Declan McCarthy 1-5, Jenkins 12-(minus-13). WIL, Jules 30-159, Powell 15-153, Leo Egbe Jr. 1-10, Kyler Proper 2-7, Anthony Torres Jr. 1-2, Ben Contella 1-0, Chibugo Chigozie-Nwosu 1-(minus-2).
PASSING — MOR, Jenkins 29-39-1-269, Carter Hallgren 2-3-0-43, McCarthy 1-1-0-4. WIL, Powell 10-19-0-106, Cooper King 1-2-0-5.
RECEIVING — MOR, Diego Del Castillo 11-96, Bingham 8-145, Avery Koser 7-35, Josh Ludlow 2-12, Bryan Monge 2-10, Bendekovits 1-23, Rico 1-(minus-5). WIL, Jimmy Johnson 3-10, Zane Grover 3-0, Higgins 2-22, Jules 1-39, Juju Fears 1-35, Kobina Otoo 1-5.
INTERCEPTIONS — MOR, none. WIL, Leroy Marshall 1-40.
MISSED FGs — MOR, none. WIL, Volpone 1-42.