Box Score
Grantham, PA — Messiah's defense bent but didn't break Saturday evening at Shoemaker Field, as the Falcons rattled off their 14th straight win — and seventh consecutive by shut out — in a 3-0 Commonwealth Conference win over Albright College.
Despite only outshooting the Lions by a 15-11 margin, Messiah (14-1, 5-0) put forth a spirited effort in the defensive third, keeping Albright (9-7-1, 1-4-1) off the board despite a valiant performance from the visitors.
“They were very effective at what they did,” Messiah head coach Brad McCarty said. “They played direct, they lived for set pieces and they were good at that. (Mark Yost) could drive the ball a considerable distance, they had a long throw in and they generated corner (kicks). They were dangerous in all three of those set pieces. We were fortunate to keep them off the board.”
With a substantially smaller Fall Break crowd filing into Shoemaker Field from last weekend's Homecoming bash, Messiah found the possession game a bit more challenging than usual. The Lions opened the contest with two first-half corner kicks to the Falcons' three, though the visitors failed to put any of their four first-half shots on frame.
On the other end of the field, Albright was not as fortunate. Messiah's second corner kick of the evening yielded the game's first score, as junior Derek Black's service was initially cleared out by the Lions' back line.
A skyward ball landed atop junior Danny Thompson's head, however, and the Hudson, Ohio native flicked the ball across the goal mouth to older brother Nick.
Nick Thompson made the most of the feed, beating Albright goalkeeper Ryan Barr to his left — slamming home his ninth goal of the season from close range.
Just under 15 minutes later, the Falcons converted another bang-bang play in the Lions' 18-yard box.
Sophomore Dan Squire was able to play a square ball to junior Sam Woodworth, who continued his trend of aesthetically-pleasing goals: With the ball hopping toward him, Woodworth volleyed the ball just under the crossbar from eight yards away, a somewhat miniature version of his legendary one-touch finish against York College Oct. 5.
Halftime came and went, but the breaks kept going Messiah's way.
In the 61st minute, an effort play from Squire led to the Falcons' final goal, as Squire shook a pair of defenders and reclaimed a ball on the Lions' end line. Attempting to play the ball back into the field of play, Squire was taken down hard from behind, drawing both an Albright yellow card and a Messiah penalty kick for a foul inside the 18-yard box.
Nick Thompson was called on for the third time this season, and for the third time he delivered. The senior hit a hard blast that newly-inserted Lions' keeper Steve Pyle couldn't keep up with, putting Messiah ahead by a 3-0 score with 29:29 to play.
“(Albright) had plenty of balls drop down in our box, and they didn't finish those chances like we did ours,” McCarty said. “I think this game could've gone either way. I don't think 3-0 is an accurate description of how this game was played.”
The Lions nearly shook off the goose egg with just over 27 minutes to play, as a handball just outside Messiah's 18-yard box equated to another Albright free kick.
Yost did the honors, sending a low, screaming ball around the left side of the Falcons' wall — the ball curling toward the lower 90 of the cage.
Sophomore keeper Jake Berry was up to the task, however, extending fully to his right and punching the ball off the end line at the last moment.
As an encore, Berry corralled an absolute bullet of a shot following the ensuing corner kick, two of his five saves coming on his birthday.
“Jake made an incredible save on that free kick, and he played really well throughout the game,” McCarty said. “For as many balls that were banged around in our (18-yard) box, I'm not sure how they came up without a goal. It was a challenge all night for our back four, for our midfielders, for our keeper. It's a credit to our team that we kept the slate clean. They worked like crazy.”
In the end, Messiah recorded its ninth shut out of the season despite allowing 11 shots, the most allotted to an opponent since giving up 12 at Nazareth College all the way back on Sept. 11.
“I thought we played good, not great,” McCarty said. “We talked about golf afterward. In golf, sometimes it's now how good your good shots are, it's how good your bad shots are. For us to get a shut out and score three goals tonight, that was important for us.”
Messiah will have a quick turnaround in prepping for its final week of regular-season play, as the team will travel to Lebanon Valley College Wednesday. That contest is a make-up from the originally-scheduled game date of Oct. 2, when the game was postponed due to unplayable field conditions.
As a result, the Falcons game at Geneva College, scheduled for Wednesday, has been cancelled.
The Falcons and LVC will hook up at Herbert Field at 3 p.m.
