Grantham, PA — A gorgeous spring evening under the lights of Shoemaker Field provided the backdrop for arguably the biggest win of the season for Messiah College men's lacrosse, as the Falcons hung on for a 14-12 MAC Conference decision over Widener University Wednesday night.
With the win, Messiah (9-5, 6-0) clinched the top seed for the upcoming conference playoffs, while rattling off the program's 25th straight regular-season league victory — a stretch encompassing the majority of the past three seasons. The Falcons utilized a 47-27 advantage in total shots and a 47-20 difference in ground balls to stave off a late comeback attempt by the Pride Wednesday night, the team's fifth win in its last six outings.
“This was a good win for us tonight,” said Geof Weisenborn, Messiah head coach. “We're happy that we won, but our guys were not pleased with the way we finished. We'll look to continue to improve on similar game situations, in hopes that we'll handle them better in post-season play.”
Weisenborn's club led by a 13-7 difference with just under 13 minutes to play in Wednesday's contest, before a 5-1 Widener run over the final 9:26 made things a bit more interesting than the Falcons' faithful would have liked. After a first half yielded a 6-4 Messiah lead, the Falcons responded by scoring seven of the second half's first nine goals, as seniors Ian Lee and Tim Sandusky each buried two.
Widener (7-7, 4-2) used pressuring defense and a transition attack to make a final flurry, however, scoring three goals in the game's final four minutes. Some clutch saves from junior goalie Ted Oberg (six on the night) averted disaster, as Messiah was able to force a key turnover with under a minute remaining to seal the victory.
“Widener knew they had to push late, and we didn't play our transition game well,” Weisenborn said. “We didn't defend their breaks as well as we needed to, and you have to credit Widener for making it interesting at the end.”
Junior Jeff Ziegler paced Messiah's attack, scoring four goals and adding an assist. Lee and senior Nick Ricucci added three goals apiece, while Sandusky chipped in with two goals and two assists for four points.
All but six participating players recorded ground balls for Messiah, as freshman J.J. Miller led the charge with 10. Sandusky picked up seven, while Ricucci and Ziegler each had four.
“Getting ground balls is about aggressiveness and how much effort you want to put forth,” Weisenborn said. “Tonight, our guys were physical, and that's a big part of the possession game. We figured we could get some goal opportunities if we could do that, protect our sticks and handle their first checks. For the most part, we did.”
The Falcons have just one regular-season game remaining before hosting next week's MAC Tournament Semi-Finals, as the team will travel to DeSales University for a 1 p.m. start Saturday. The club is looking for its second straight undefeated regular-season conference record, while Weisenborn said the match-up against DeSales is meaningless only to mathematicians.
“It's always good to get the number one seed (for the conference playoffs), but we're going to DeSales looking to get better,” Weisenborn said. “They're a team that is playing their best lacrosse of the season. We're certainly not going to be thinking about anything else before Saturday.”
