By Matt McDermott, GoMessiah.com student manager
Elizabethtown, PA — With a win under its collective belt, the Messiah men's lacrosse team came out of the gates rolling on all cylinders Wednesday afternoon, scoring three early goals against conference rival Elizabethtown College at Wolf Field.
But despite the early advantage, the Blue Jays forced poor management of possession for the Falcons — and the game — in a disheartening 7-6 win in the conference opener for both teams.
Even with the team's fourth loss in its first five games, head coach Geof Weisenborn said that, despite the end result, his team is getting better and this close game with a good E'Town squad showed just that.
“Actually, this is a step forward for us,” Weisenborn said. “We came out playing really well and we are getting better every day in practice. Today that showed, but we have to play like we did early on throughout the entire game.”
Messiah (1-4, 0-1) opened the first quarter playing its type of game as senior Nate Windon scored the first of two goals at the 12:19 mark on a crafty, unassisted goal from the midfielder. He would be backed by freshman Kyle Sproles, making his first collegiate start, at the 8:42 minute mark on another unassisted goal.
With a man-up advantage, Messiah showed the almost dominant performance into the second quarter as senior John Murdock and junior J.J. Miller hooked up on the penalty attack with 12:55 left to play in the first half, giving the Falcons a comfortable 3-0 lead over the hosts.
But the Blue Jays would prove to be resilient even after a slow start.
Led by seniors Jon Day and Aaron Weber, Elizabethtown (3-2, 1-4) would score six of the next seven goals spanning from 11:40 in the second quarter to 12:19 in the third. The duo led the Blue Jays with five goals, two and three respectively, on 21 combined shots.
Despite the heavily lopsided push during the 15-minute span, Weisenborn said it was not to the discredit of his defense.
“I thought (our defensemen) played well,” he said. “They played well defending the cage but they could not clear the ball efficiently to the mids, and the mids didn't make the best decisions when they had the ball.”
And the defense was not helped in the second half by the offense. Despite Miller winning five of seven face-offs in the second period, the offense produced just eight shots in the quarter. The offensive problem?
“You can't take shots when you don't have the ball,” Weisenborn said. “The had the ball the majority of the second half and when we turned the ball over between the lines and couldn't get the offense the ball, we kept digging ourselves a hole.”
Momentum was clearly in favor of E'Town, but the game was still close. At halftime, shots (20-17) ground balls (21-16), turnovers (10-16), and percentage of successful clears (80-50) were slightly in favor of the home squad.
And despite the crafty passing of freshman Heath Kupecky, making his third consecutive start, the two goals that came from his playmaking ability to senior Brent Stewart at 6:07 in the third and Windon with 3:56 to play in the fourth were not enough for the Falcons in their conference opener.
The dagger was already delivered with 6:22 to play on Weber's second goal.
“Heath has really made some quality decisions for us when he has been on the field,” Weisenborn said about his freshman playmaker. “He is a good shooter but more importantly, he doesn't lose the ball for us. He isn't a liability for us. He is giving people the right ball and giving them the right chances to score.”
And even though the two teams were only separated by one goal at the final horn, the game, after the initial hot start by the Falcons, was all Blue Jays as the hosts finished with 44 shots and 40 ground balls won to the Falcons 27 and 26, respectively.
And the 32 turnovers for the Falcons?
The unsightly reality to the downfall of the game.
But don't count the Falcons down and out for the season.
“This is the first conference game for us,” Weisenborn said. “We still have 10 more games. The conference season is still young to us and we will get out and compete. Today we showed we can compete with the tops of the league. We just have to be play with more aggression but even greater discipline.”
The next test for Weisenborn's squad will be another chance to garner a league win, as Messiah hosts Misericordia University Saturday at 7 p.m.
“We are still in the mix,” Weisenborn added. “There is a lot of lacrosse left to be played. We'll play one game at a time and, if we keep improving, we've got a chance to be right there at the end.”
