WILMINGTON, Del. – Junior attacker Leighton Cooke extended his hat-trick streak to 10 consecutive games for Post University Men's Lacrosse with a trio of goals on Saturday against Wilmington University on the road, but freshman goalie Aiden Waller's six-game streak of allowing 10 goals or less came to an end as the Wildcats pounced on the Eagles, defeating them 18-8.

Post now sits at 3-2 in conference play, good for fourth in the conference with three games remaining, and both losses coming against the top two teams in the conference in Wilmington and Georgian Court University, who are both still undefeated against Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opponents. 

THE BASICS

Post University 8, Wilmington University 18

Post University (6-5, 3-2 CACC)

Wilmington University (6-3, 4-0 CACC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Never leading in this game, the only tie of the affair came less than three minutes into the game when freshman midfielder Will Brien tied the score up at one all before Wilmington's 3-0 run gave them the lead for good the rest of the way. Brien finished the day with two goals, one behind Cooke's team-leading three-goal performance, while graduate attacker Hunter McCarty, senior attacker Robbie McGrayne, and sophomore midfielder Gabe Roman each had one. 

Junior attacker Ryan Denike dished out two assists, tying for the team lead with McCarty, who, with three points on the day, got to 189 in his career between Concordia University and Post, putting him 11 shy of the 200-point mark. Senior long-stick midfielder James Sproul led all Eagles, who had 31 ground balls, with seven of them, followed by five from freshman long-stick midfielder Gavin Lee, which tied his career-high thus far. 

Junior midfielder Connor Widmer dominated in nearly every facet of the game, snagging a game-high nine ground balls along with his 16-for-24 performance in the faceoff circle. As a team, Wilmington took 20-of-30 faceoffs from Post, including those 16 from Widmer, while dominating in the ground balls category as well with their 45 on the game. Five different players for the Wildcats ended with two goals each, while junior attacker Andrew Dzubak tallied four goals and one assist for a team-leading five points.

Sophomore goalie Daniel Flynn was victorious in net, remaining undefeated in conference play in his starts, after making 10 saves and allowing just six goals in 51:30 played. With the game on ice, sophomore goalie Braeden Mitchell closed out the day for the final 8:30 in which he allowed two goals on two shots. As for Waller, he fell to 4-2 in his rookie season, giving up a career-high 18 goals while making 11 saves in the 10-goal defeat. 

BY THE NUMBER

• Allowing 18 goals in today's game, Aiden Waller saw his streak of six straight appearances and five straight starts without allowing more than 10 goals come to a close against Wilmington University  
• Recording three points today, Hunter McCarty continues his pursuit of 200 career points and now sits at 189 career points following the game 
• Leighton Cooke's hat-trick streak extended to 10 consecutive games since being held scoreless in the season opener against Assumption University -- Cooke had three goals against Wilmington University this afternoon 
• Since defeating Wilmington University in their first-ever matchup back in 2018, Post University has lost the last seven matchups with the Wildcats and remains winless in five tries against them on the road 

WHO'S NEXT
After a week off, Post University will host Senior Day on Saturday morning at 10:00 AM before taking on the University of Bridgeport at LaMoy Field at 11:00 AM. The Eagles are 3-0 against the Purple Knights in the all-time series, winning a pair of close matchups last season at home in the CACC Quarterfinals, 16-13, and during the regular season on the road, 14-11.