Grantham, PA — Messiah more than tripled its overall offensive production Saturday afternoon against York College, but an incredible 12 penalties — along with a plethora of turnovers — kept the Falcons looking for their first win of the young season in a 10-16 loss to the Spartans.
Playing in a constant, wind-driven rain at Anderson Field, Messiah (0-3) converted on 10 of 27 shots (37 percent), a vast improvement from a 4.5-percent shooting clip in a 1-11 loss to Ursinus College and a 10.5 percentage in its season-opening 2-14 loss at third-ranked Gettysburg College.
The aforementioned giveaways nullified those numbers, however, as Messiah's 12 penalties were the most in a single game under the guidance of fifth-year head coach Geof Weisenborn.
“This week (in practice) we worked on being competitive in everything,” Weisenborn said. “I thought we showed the competitive spirit that we need to be successful, but we made way too many mistakes to win a game against a good team.”
As was the case in both of its previous games, Messiah got behind early Saturday. York (2-4) scored the first three goals of the game, using some pretty passing to get opportunities near the crease.
Junior J.J. Miller put the Falcons on the board with 7:29 left in the first period, but a score from the Spartans' Adam Cooper made it a 4-1 game with just over five minutes to go in the opening stanza.
It was then that Messiah made its first palpable push, using an unassisted goal from freshman Zac Smith and a sweet finish from junior Phil Wendt to pull within a 4-3 deficit just before the first-quarter horn.
York would score the game's next four goals, however, repeatedly getting inside the Falcons' defense for close-range looks.
Wendt scored his second marker of the contest with 2:37 to go in the first half, but Messiah still trailed by an 8-4 count.
“We had entirely too many unforced turnovers on offense and we lost our man off-ball (on defense) a lot,” Weisenborn said. “Those were really the two keys that hurt us.”
The Spartans came out of the halftime huddle to score four of the five goals in the third period, but Weisenborn's group would not go down without a fight: A 3-0 spurt pulled the hosts within a 12-8 difference with just two and a half minutes elapsed in the fourth.
Penalties would crush any chance of a comeback, however, as York tacked on four more scores — two in man-up situations — to reclaim a 16-9 difference with just under five minutes to play. Wendt completed his fourth career hat trick to pull Messiah within the final difference, but it simply was not enough to put a marker in the win column.
Miller and Smith each added two scores to complement Wendt's three, while sophomore Matt Everhart scored his first collegiate goal off an assist from freshman Hayden Geating in the fourth quarter.
For the second consecutive game, the Falcons led an opponent in ground balls (35-23) and in face offs (18 of 29; 17 of 28 from Miller), but York's 50-27 advantage in total shots alluded to Messiah's issues with turnovers.
“We were more aggressive on offense, and we really worked hard on shot technique this week,” Weisenborn said. “I'm not sure our shot selection was that much better (than in our first two games), but we executed better. We pushed transition, and we challenged (York) much better.”
Messiah will remain idle over the institution's spring break before traveling to Neumann University next Saturday, facing the Knights in a contest slated to begin at 1 p.m.
“We're getting better,” Weisenborn said. “We're not where we need to be, but we are taking steps forward. No one is satisfied.”
