Aston, PA — It may have taken a bit longer than what head coach Geof Weisenborn had hoped, but Messiah finally got into the win column, knocking off host Neumann University Saturday afternoon on the Knights' field.
Junior Phil Wendt equaled a career high with four goals and the Falcons withstood a methodical and deliberate attack from the Knights, using a late scoring surge that opened up a one-goal lead into the final four-score spread.
Despite the team's first win, Weisenborn said it's not necessarily a signal that the team has arrived.
“It's nice to get our first win, but we've still got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We had our opportunities to really finish off an opponent, but we didn't get stops or capitalize on as many of those chances as we would have liked.”
Incredibly, Neumann (1-4) kept things reasonably close through the majority of the contest despite being outshot by a 50-28 difference — far and away Messiah's highest total in a single game this season.
The Falcons got ahead by a 4-1 score at the midway point of the second quarter, utilizing a 3-0 run to improve on a 1-1 score after the first period of play. Freshman Heath Kupecky finished a feed from senior Nate Windon with 11:23 to go in the first half, while senior Brent Stewart scored off an assist from Wendt just a minute and a half later.
When Windon put in his second goal of the day off a feed from Kupecky, Messiah had a three-goal advantage with 8:13 to go in the opening half.
Neumann would not go away without a fight.
Sticking to its zone defense and plodding pace on offense, the Knights slowly chipped away at the Messiah lead, led by freshman goalie Andrew Neubauer's 17 saves.
And while Messiah would take a 6-3 lead into the huddle at halftime, Neumann's most serious push would come in the third quarter.
Momentum slowly began to change as the Knights put up three scores in the stanza, markers that were only answered by Wendt's first goal of the afternoon — coming with 8:48 to go.
With less than four minutes to play in the third, Neumann had closed to just a 7-6 deficit.
The hosts would get no closer.
A score from senior John Murdock ignited a 4-0 run from the Falcons, regaining an 11-6 lead with 11:29 left to play in the game. Wendt scored a pair of goals in succession following Murdock's initial tally, and then Murdock cashed in on a Windon assist to finish the surge.
A late two-goal rally from the Knights was too little, too late, as Windon finished off the game's scoring on an unassisted marker with 2:36 on the game clock.
“We played effectively against a team that was trying to slow down tempo, and we did some good things against their zone (defense),” Weisenborn said. “We were composed. We had some opportunities to get some additional shots, but turnovers hurt us. Defensively, if we would have been more fundamental, we could have maybe forced some more turnovers. Those are the types of things we need to improve on.”
Junior J.J. Miller was again a big reason why Messiah was afforded initial chances, winning 18 of 23 total face-offs and picking up a game-high 19 ground balls. Wendt's four goals were flanked by three from Windon, while Murdock scored a pair.
Messiah will hope its initial win can provide momentum into the conference slate, as the Falcons open MAC play at arch-rival Elizabethtown College next. The squads are set to meet at the Blue Jays' Wolf Field Wednesday afternoon. Game time is slated for 4 p.m.
