Box Score
Rochester, NY — A goal 56 seconds into the game and another just 1:12 into the second half helped Messiah cruise to a 3-0 win at Roberts Wesleyan College Friday evening, as the Falcons opened their second consecutive weekend of back-to-back competition.
Messiah — ranked 17th in the latest NSCAA/Adidas Top 25 Poll and 11th in the most recent D3soccer.com Top 25 ballot — used a 16-8 advantage in total shots and an increasingly dominant possession game to claim the first of two matches in upstate New York. The Falcons will face host Nazareth College tomorrow afternoon.
“First and foremost, it was good to get a shutout,” said Brad McCarty, Messiah head coach. “I thought we played good but not great tonight, and you have to give Roberts Wesleyan a lot of credit for that. (Coach) Mark Fish has built a good program that tries to do the right thing. They were organized and played extremely hard, and they made it tough on us.”
Playing in front of a respectable crowd of 1,200, Messiah (2-1) put a damper on the Raiders' home field advantage almost instantly, as junior Derek Black won a ball on the left side of the midfield line just moments in.
Black then played a brilliant through ball to freshman Sheldon Myer, and the breakaway was on: Myer touched the ball down the center of the field before squaring his hips and beating charging Roberts Wesleyan keeper Erik Read to his low hand, putting Messiah on the board less than a minute in.
“It was good to see us get a goal early, and it was good to see Sheldon finish from a new position,” McCarty said. “After that, I thought Roberts played really well. They had spirit, and I thought they played better than us at times in the first half, or at least seemed to want it more than us at times during the first half. I thought we were better in the second half.”
After attempting just seven first-half shots to the Raiders' three, Messiah slowly began to control possession following halftime. Of course, another score just over a minute into the final period didn't hurt.
Again, it was Black which started the sequence, beating a defender to the baseline and sending a cross from the left side — putting the ball directly in front of the Raiders' frame.
With an opportunity to take a shot, Myer elected to dummy the ball through his legs, leaving junior Danny Thompson wide open on the far post.
Black's cross met Thompson's right foot beautifully, and the Hudson, Ohio native finished an easy opportunity from inside of six yards.
With a 2-0 lead in hand, the Falcons' possession game took over, with the majority of play being held in Roberts Wesleyan's half of the field. The second-half stats displayed as much, as Messiah recorded six of its eight corner kicks in the game's final 45 minutes, outshooting the Raiders by a 9-5 difference.
The game's final tally came in the 64th minute where, following a Messiah corner, sophomore Logan Thompson was the beneficiary of a loose ball.
As the Raiders' back line attempted to clear the service out of danger, the ball popped out to the youngest Thompson, who was situated just outside the 18-yard box. His low, hard shot found its way through traffic and snuck just inside the near post, giving the Falcons added cushion with just under 30 minutes to play.
“I thought, in the second half, we won the territory battle a bit, and did a better job of creating scoring chances and limiting theirs,” McCarty said. “We still have yet to find the rhythm of possessing the ball and keeping it on our opponents' half. Our passing game isn't what we'd like it to be yet. We got better tonight and we're getting better. We're not a finished product yet.”
Senior goalkeeper Kyle Fulks collected the complete-game shutout in goal, finishing with two saves on the evening. Read finished with seven saves for the Raiders, while McCarty praised Roberts Wesleyan's Donavan Wilson and Jake Schindler for their efforts in the back as well.
“Their two center backs had an impact on the game,” he said. “They made it difficult for us and played very well.”
McCarty will next take his group 30 miles down the road from Roberts Wesleyan, as the Falcons will face host Nazareth Saturday afternoon. Game time is set for 3:30 p.m., giving Messiah a minimum in recovery time.
“We like to be on the road,” McCarty said. “It's important for us to experience back-to-back games, similar to what you'd find in the post-season. Playing well in these situations is important to us.”
