By Travis Galaska, GoMessiah.com reporter
Ewing, NJ — Messiah left The College of New Jersey in a fog after their Saturday night showdown in the Garden State.
Literally and figuratively.
In a game in which most onlookers assumed the final score would resemble something like last year's 1-1 tie in Grantham, the Falcons struck early and rapidly, scoring three goals in a span of five minutes and 48 seconds on their way to a 6-0 win over the Lions of TCNJ.
Messiah — ranked number one in the nation in both the NSCAA/Adidas Top 25 and the D3soccer.com rating — came in with the hopes of improving to 9-0 and a perfect first half of the season, while the Lions were aiming to move to 5-3-3 and gain a major non-conference win.
The game was delayed nearly 50 minutes due to lightning, but even once the teams were on the turf, the fireworks continued, especially in favor of Messiah.
“Our set pieces tonight were the difference in the game,” said Messiah head coach Brad McCarty.
Were they ever.
After opening the game with a cross that was barely cleared out of the penalty box and an open look that went screaming just over the crossbar, Messiah was doing some major work on the offensive end of the field. As a result of that work, they were rewarded with a corner kick just 16 minutes into the first half. Junior Geoff Pezon lined up and fired a cross into the box from the right corner, where it sailed beautifully over the coagulation of players directly in front of the goal and wound up square on the opposite corner of the goal box and onto the head of fellow junior Nick Thompson, who had erroneously been left ever so slightly unmarked, and he took full advantage of it. Raising his 6-foot-plus frame high into the air, Thompson met the ball with cleanly with his head and directed it into his near upper 90 just inside the left post, giving the Falcons an early 1-0 lead.
Strangely enough, at that point in time, a thin fog started developing over the turf at Lions Stadium, and as this fog thickened throughout the game, so too did the Messiah score sheet.
Almost immediately, in fact.
Just four minutes later, the Falcons were awarded another corner kick, this one coming from the left side, where sophomore Kent Ramirez set up to send in another cross. This time, the cross came right into the center of all those people right above the goal box. Somehow, Pezon was able to connect his foot with the ball and volley it right into the back of the net to double their lead to 2-0.
Finally, only a minute and a half after that, the Falcons would score on yet another corner kick, their fourth on the night out of eight total. This time it was Pezon again sending it in from the right side, again meeting Thompson for a score. The eldest Thompson brother managed to wriggle free inside the box and get all alone, sending another screamer of a header into the back center of the net for a mind-numbingly fast 3-0 Falcon lead.
Of course, it's tough to keep feeling that desire as a team to want to come out and play hard after barely blinking and giving up three goals, but the Lions certainly made a valiant effort.
After those three goals off the corner kicks, the TCNJ defense did a much better job of staying on task and getting open, something they had struggled with early in the half. After a few minutes of increased intensity by the Lions and their fans, this hustle would lead to what was probably their best look of the game, as junior Phillip Cunha got behind the Messiah defense and was able to get control of the ball right at the top of the penalty box. Cunha fired a rocket of a shot toward the top center of the net, but Messiah's senior keeper Jared Clugston was up for the task, leaping full out in the air to parry the ball high over the crossbar with his hand and making what would be his only save of the night.
“They (TCNJ) were lively and difficult to mark, and they created some good scoring opportunities,” McCarty said.
“It's always good to be effective from set pieces,” said junior forward Keaton Kasiguran. “When you've got those going for you along with what we've been able to do so far, it just makes you that much better.”
The second half was more of the same for the Falcons, although from this point on the scoring was to come more from the “regular” part of play.
Just three minutes after the opening of the second half, Messiah would get on the board yet again. Sophomore Danny Thompson dribbled down the left side of the field, getting around a defender and sending a forward pass wonderfully onto the foot of Pezon, who had squirted through the TCNJ defense. Pezon one-timed a low blast toward the left half of the goal, barely eluding the dive of TCNJ freshman keeper Adam Friedman for a 4-0 lead.
With Messiah dominating second-half possession, it was not long before they would tally again, this time getting a fresh face on the score sheet. Nick Thompson took a pass right at the center circle from his defense, turned, and slotted a pass through the drawn up Lions defense and onto the feet of Ramirez flying down the left sideline yet again. With no defenders to contend with, Ramirez dribbled down the side and then cut in, angling into the penalty box from the right side. Friedman was forced to come off his line, at which point Ramirez curled a lovely shot from right-to-left around Friedman's save attempt and just inside the far post, giving Messiah a 5-nil lead.
Friedman does deserve credit for keeping the game as close as it ended up in the second half. At one point, Danny Thompson had a partial breakaway on goal with a defender on his left shoulder, and fired a shot from just inside the penalty box at the top. Friedman, who had come off his line yet again, made an incredible diving save just five yards from Thompson, denying the middle brother a goal of his own.
On another occasion, Friedman was left alone in the same situation, this time with freshman Joshua Wood being the point man, but again Friedman made an awesome reflex save, sliding to the ground to stop the blast.
Despite those efforts, it was just not the Lions' night. In the 67th minute, Nick Thompson would close out the score book with a semi-fluky goal, finalizing his first collegiate hat trick: Brother Danny Thompson carried the ball down the right side of the field, where upon reaching the top of the penalty box he sent something between a cross and a shot into the center of the box. Because it was not directly on net, but there were Messiah players racing in to put the ball away, Friedman came out off his line and dove to the right to parry the ball out of harm's way. However, the attempt went awry and the ball only trickled a few feet off course, where Nick would meet up with and send the ball roaring into the back center of the now-empty net to set the final score at 6-0.
“We didn't have the ball that much in that first half,” said McCarty. “That 3-0 score really isn't indicative of what actually happened in the half.”
Fair enough, Coach. And the second half?
“In the second half, we really settled down well. I think those early goals for us had an impact on their desire to pressure us, and they couldn't possess as much because of that.”
Saturday's win sets up yet another crucial match-up, as Messiah will meet up with neighboring rival York College Wednesday afternoon. The Spartans, currently at #23/#3 respective top 25 polls, went down 1-0 on Saturday to earlier Falcon foe Christopher Newport University, currently ranked at #3/#4 in the same ratings.
Last season, York handed Messiah a 2-1 loss in front of a sold-out Shoemaker Field crowd.
“York is a tough matchup for us,” McCarty said. “They've got good attacking players and make for some great competition. We've gone 0-2-1 against them the past three seasons, so we're obviously hungry for a win.”
Game time is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday at York's Graham Field.
