By Travis Galaska, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — After the Messiah men's soccer team dealt Arcadia University an 8-0 defeat during the regular season, most local soccer fans expected the two to meet under different circumstances and net a tighter result in Saturday's Commonwealth Conference Championship game.
Somebody forgot to let the Falcons know their expectations.
Messiah (19-1) used an absolutely dominant first half to shut down Arcadia (13-6-3) on a crisp and cool autumn night, capturing the team's third straight league championship via a 4-1 win at Shoemaker Field.
The Falcons now await Monday's selection show to find out when, where and who they will play in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
“Our guys deserved this conference championship,” said Messiah head coach Brad McCarty. “That was one of the goals we've talked about for a while this season.”
It certainly didn't take long for the Falcons to pick up where they left off against the Knights a few weeks ago. Three minutes after the opening whistle, sophomore Danny Thompson sent a through ball onto the feet of junior Geoff Pezon, flying through the right side of the Arcadia defense.
Pezon burned down the right wing and turned in to the right side of the Knights' penalty box in a two-on-none with fellow junior Nick Thompson. Pezon sent a short cross to the other side of the box, where Thompson was waiting unmarked and drilled the ball past Arcadia senior keeper Jeff Kratohwill and into the net for the nearly instantaneous 1-0 Messiah lead.
It was only six minutes before Messiah doubled up on that early lead, as more strong, offensive possession deep in the Knights' zone helped the hosts to another score at the 8:36 marker.
Sophomore Derek Black collected a loose ball and dribbled down into the left corner of the field, sending cross into the top of the goal box. Freshman Josh Wood was left unmarked, and sent an amazing one-time “chest-shot” across the mouth of the goal and into the far side netting, making the lead 2-0 less than 10 minutes into the game.
Just five minutes later, Messiah nearly tallied another goal, as senior Brett Faro wound up with the ball on his feet at the top center of the Knights' penalty box after some back and forth turnovers in the offensive zone. Faro let a shot rip toward the Arcadia goal, but Kratohwill made an excellent save diving to his left, one of his 11 saves on this busy night.
A minute later, Arcadia got arguably its best chance of the first half, as a Knights' attacker got deep inside the left side of the Falcons' penalty box.
The attacker beat his defender and got all the way to the top left corner of the goal box, where he let a point-blank shot rip on goal. Senior keeper Jared Clugston was more than up to the task, however, making the original save and diving on top of the rebound to smother any further opportunities for the Knights.
In the 17th minute, Messiah would get on the board once again. Danny Thompson sent a cross from just outside the right side of the Knights' penalty box, which made it all the way to the far side of the box. Once again, it was Wood waiting for the pass, this time further toward the top left of the box. Wood chested the cross to the ground with his back to the goal, then spun and sent a volley roaring straight into the back of the net, increasing the lead even further to 3-0.
Perhaps even more incredible, this goal marked Wood's sixth straight multi-goal game and sent his team leading goals mark to a total of 18 on the season.
Naturally, Wood was selected as the tournament's most valuable player.
“Josh has obviously been playing well for us,” McCarty said. “He's stepped into a need with confidence and poise, and that has clearly been beneficial.”
After another chance inside the Knights' penalty box was saved by Kratohwill, the Falcons gained possession again in the midfield. Once again, the Messiah midfield sent a beautiful through pass over the defense and onto the feet of Pezon, who was left all alone with a breakaway on goal from 35 yards out. Kratohwill took the risk and came all the way out off his line to meet the challenge, and in attempting to stop the rush sent Pezon flying with a rough tackle, earning a yellow card for his efforts.
On the ensuing free kick, Pezon had a good look at goal, but his shot was sent just high over the crossbar.
Although the Falcons maintained nearly all the possession and pressure for the rest of the half, it would not be until the 41st minute that the home team would get on the board one more time. After another great through ball over the top of the Arcadia defense and to the right wing, sophomore Trevor Lee rushed down the sideline, caught up with the ball, and carried it into the right side of the box. Lee let a shot rip on goal, but Kratohwill dove and made the save. The ball, however, bounded off his hands and to the left side of the goal, where freshman JP Fulton was rushing in to clean up the rebound. Fulton made an attempt at the ball, but tripped in the process and the ball trickled toward the left side of the goal inside the goal box. A Knights defender came rushing alongside Fulton to try to make the stop, but his attempt only sent the ball further into goal, and the teams went into halftime with the Falcons up 4-0.
“They played us a different style than they did in our first game this season,” McCarty said of Arcadia's strategy. “Tonight, they played a high offside trap, and we really made them pay in the first half.”
As the teams reentered the field for the second half, the Falcons continued their dominant possession game. However, the Knights also stepped up their second-half game, and after buckling down on defense, Messiah was held scoreless in the second period — marking just the second time this season the Falcons failed to score in a second period.
It was not not for lack of chances.
On numerous occasions, Messiah pressed the ball deep into the offensive zone of the Knights, but were unable to come away with any additional goals. At one point on the evening, the Falcons took five shots from inside the penalty box without the ball being cleared out, all of which were either saved by Kratohwill or blocked by the Knights' defense.
When a team finally did get on the second-half scoreboard, it was the Knights who ended up tallying the point. With less than five minutes remaining in the game, an Arcadia attacker attempted to gain control of a pass on the right side of his offensive zone, but his touch rolled too far ahead and into the penalty box for the Falcons. Junior and newly-inserted keeper Kyle Fulks came running off his line and called for the pass, but his call went unheard by the closest Messiah defender, who came back and caught up to the ball, spinning to clear it out of the zone. His clearance attempt went straight to an Arcadia attacker however, and he managed to dribble into the top center of the box for a shot.
By this point, Fulks had recovered, and rushed to his right to dive and make the beautiful save on the shot attempt. However, the ball bounded toward the left side of the box, and Arcadia sophomore Ethan Armstrong was left with a wide open net from 15 yards out, and his shot went dead center into the netting, narrowing the lead to 4-1 in favor of the Falcons.
“We made some second half adjustments that just didn't work out, and I'll take the blame for that,” McCarty said. “It's disappointing to give up that last goal. We always like to score last in a match.”
It was just too little too late for the Knights however, and the frustration at the Falcons' attack was evident. After another brilliant through pass over the top of the Arcadia defense, it was Wood this time who was left with a breakaway on goal. Again, Kratohwill made the decision to come out of the box and stop the attack, and again his challenge was way too rough, earning himself another yellow card, resulting in the red card and forcing the Knights to finish the game with freshman keeper Mike Soares in net.
When the whistle sounded, it was the Falcons who ended up as conference champions on their home turf by the 4-1 score.
“It was great that our guys were able to win the conference,” McCarty said. “It's really tough to beat a team twice in a season, and we did that twice in these playoffs.”
With the win, the Falcons earn an automatic berth into the 2009 NCAA Tournament on a 10 game winning streak, as well as earning McCarty his first piece of hardware as Messiah's head coach.
“It wasn't necessarily the best soccer tonight, but we'll fight and claw to get better,” he said.
Messiah earns its 13th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and 21st overall, as the Falcons will await Monday's selection show to find out who, when and where they will play next.
“In D-III soccer, the tournament isn't all pure seeding,” McCarty said. “Sometimes you get an easy road and sometimes you get a hard road, but there's advantages and disadvantages to each of those paths.”
Check back to this website for the most updated information regarding Messiah's post-season run, or log on to www.ncaa.com for tournament qualifiers and — eventually — interactive brackets.
