Box Score
By Matt McDermott, GoMessiah.com student manager
Grantham, PA — Sometimes, it is better to be lucky than good.
And having Heath Kupecky doesn't hurt either.
Despite being down three goals with six minutes left to play in regular time and zero offensive possessions in overtime, Messiah was able to claw its way back from an ostensibly inevitable defeat against their disciplined and patient rivals from Elizabethtown College Wednesday night at Anderson Field. By a virtue of an 80-yard pseudo-clear, sophomore Heath Kupecky stood tall and victorious after his team-leading 20th goal with 4.7 seconds left to play in overtime, defeating the Blue Jays 11-10 for Messiah's eighth straight victory — as hard as it was to fathom.
“We are fortunate,” said Messiah head coach Geof Weisenborn, with a slight grin. “E'Town is a very disciplined and patient team that had a great game plan for us. If we make a mistake, they are a truly capable team that will make us pay for it, and that is what happened tonight. We were able to come back and get the win off of some big defensive stops. Sometimes, it's good to be lucky and have the bounces go our way, literally.”
Technically, the game started as it finished, as Messiah (8-2, 6-0) scored the opening goal of the game just 27 seconds in off the stick of sophomore Zac Smith. That was backed by Kupecky's first goal of the night at the 11:42 mark, as the Falcons took a 2-0 lead.
But Elizabethtown (5-5, 3-4) never went away, holding its offensive explosion for the second quarter. The Blue Jays' Cory Boushell put E'Town on the board at the 11:11 mark, but it wasn't until after Kupecky's second goal of the night with 8:37 left that there was a slight shift in momentum: Messiah slowly lost the ability to control in transitions and on the offensive end, and the visiting birds took advantage.
“We made mistakes and that is what they wanted,” Weisenborn said. “We turned the ball over (13 giveaways in the first half alone), we made bad decisions on defense and they capitalized on it. E'Town doesn't allow you to play un-fundamentally sound lacrosse and not pay for it.”
And pay the Falcons did. The Blue Jays scored four unanswered goals — three in a one-minute span — to push momentum in their favor. The main key for the Blue Jay's dominance in the quarter was time off offensive possession, seen by the Falcons being outshot by 13 in the second period, 3-16 — with 10 of those shots coming on goal.
Messiah's only shot on goal of the second quarter was a deep one, just inside the attacking third of the field from sophomore Kyle Sproles. An easy 20 yards stood between the Lititz, Pa. native and the goal, but after shaking his defender to his right, Sproles brought the Falcons within one goal from their rivals.
“A lot of what they did on offense kept us from seeing the ball on offense,” senior Eric Petters said. “They were getting goals off our turnovers and they were good in unsettled situations and that hurt us.”
Messiah, as a result, was forced to face its first halftime deficit in over a month.
But Weisenborn's group was able to even things up, and even capture a lead in the first five minutes of the third quarter, thanks in part to sophomores Kevan Schellenburg and Sproles, who scored at the 13:56 and 10:21 marks, respectively.
But it was then that E'Town seemed to run away with the game, literally. With the Falcons reverting back to their second-quarter form of mistakes on offense, the Blue Jays scored four straight goals, again. From the 4:32 mark in the third to the 9:42 mark in the final stanza, Elizabethtown exploited Messiah's five turnovers for five straight clear opportunities during the span.
And although Sproles hoped to get Messiah going with his goal at the 7:47 mark, E'Town's Brian Boring connected on a pass from junior Shawn Corcoran to put the Blue Jays up 10-7 with less than 7:30 to play.
“From (the score of) 6-6 to 7-10, we just failed to clear the ball and wasted our time on offense,” Weisenborn said. “We played a lot of defense.”
Messiah had hope, however, with a two-men-up opportunity with just under six minutes to play, but failed to produce more than two shots in the golden opportunity.
Down three goals with less than five minutes to play, Weisenborn made one final push, calling on experience and fresh legs to lead the Falcons through the storm.
“I decided that this had to be the time to go for it,” Weisenborn said. “Less than five to play, I put (seniors) Eric (Petters), J.J. (Miller) and Phil (Wendt) in the midfield because we needed guys with experience in difficult situations to get us out of there. We were a little thin in the midfield all game anyway, but we needed to be more dangerous. Fresh legs and experience ... those guys brought us that.”
They also brought, quite possibly, the greatest comeback against E'Town, or any other team for that matter, in Messiah men's lacrosse history.
With 2:29 left to play, Wendt found Petters on the left side of the field, where the senior captain scored his fourth goal of the season at the most opportune time. Messiah trailed 10-8.
“With five minutes left, we are down three goals, I don't know if we are going to get the ball because of the way that they are playing,” Petters said. “On defense when someone dodges, another defender slides in. So you need to get in a spot to get open and my guy slid with Phil's dodge. We made eye contact and he put it right in my stick. I knew as soon as I caught it I was shooting.”
Following Petters' score, whispers passed through the Anderson Field crowd, wondering if and hoping that the Falcons could continue their seven-game winning streak.
Whispers then turned into roars following a man up-possession for the Falcons. After the goal, Miller won the ensuing face-off and less than a minute later, E'Town's Mike Kenneally was called for a 30-second holding call. The result was Miller's 15th goal of the year with 1:32 left to play.
“To be honest, I don't remember the penalty at all,” Miller said. “I just remember facing off and then we are a man up. Coach called for me to get the ball and I was ready. I knew I was going to go goal and I went as hard as I could. They gave a little bit of space and I took it and I scored.”
After Miller's tally, E'Town was called for unnecessary roughness, putting itself in a man-down position again for a minute.
The Falcons would only need seven seconds.
Swinging the ball on possession, junior James Baden found Smith in front of cage, finalizing the comeback with 1:25 left to play.
As the crowd of nearly 300 went berserk, it was clear that momentum had shifted.
“That was the big thing,” Miller continued. “Getting the next man up opportunity and not having to face off, since it was a dead-ball foul. It is kind of like an 'and-one' in basketball. We get to run back and score.”
Not so fast. Although Miller won the forthcoming faceoff, Elizabethtown's Casey Decker was able to force Miller to turn the ball over, creating another elongated, offensive possession for the visitors. With a shot, a turnover, a ground ball and a penalty all going in favor of the Blue Jays, Messiah entered overtime playing defense, due to a slashing penalty.
Again, Messiah's defense, though challenged, stood the test of time, withstanding three shots — two on goal — in the first 3:46 minutes of OT. Messiah gained two clear chances, but failed to convert on each.
With the possession again in favor of the Blue Jays, patiently waiting for the appropriate time to strike, Messiah's defense patiently waited as well.
“In OT we got the penalty and it is okay because our man-down defense is really good,” senior goalie Zach Cureton said, who over and over again made crucial saves — 19 in all — to give the Falcons more chances to score. “So I was confident. I was hoping they would shoot the ball so I could get a save because I knew they were holding possession and being patient. We needed to score and boom, out of now where …”
With 10 seconds left, sophomore Jared Nies made his move.
“… It happened so quickly ...” Cureton continued.
Checking E'Town junior Dan Patton in the middle of the box, Nies cleared the ball from Patton's stick and gobbled up the ground ball.
Wading through a desperate or instinctive clear, Nies propitiously launched the ball high in the air towards the offensive end.
“… I see Jared just send it and Heath is right there …”
Kupeckey stood in the attacking third, watching and timing his run dead on with the play developing around him. Behind him stood Schellenburg moving toward two defenders and in front of him was only open space.
As Kupecky moved into the space, his reward was a bouncing ball dropping behind the defenders and into his lap like a gift on Christmas. With time winding down, all that stood in Kupecky's way was E'Town goalie Brendan Corcoran.
“… and he scored!”
Kupecky faked high and went low, capping off an epic come back for the ages. After beating Corcoran with a bouncer, Kupecky stood victorious, waiting with arms wide open as his teammates mobbed him on the field.
“It took some luck for this to happen, but sometimes, that is what needs to happen in a win,” Kupecky said. “I saw the ball coming down and I tried to play it as best I could. This is a great experience. To beat a team like E'Town in overtime is great. This is an especially good win because we dug ourselves a hole to win.”
With the victory, the team ties a program-best eight straight wins, dating back to the 2005 season, a team that climbed to number six in national polls on their way to the MAC Championship game.
“With five minutes left, I thought to myself, 'Maybe we do need to lose,'” Cureton said. “And then right away, I thought, 'no.' I want to win. The streak might not mean that much, but winning … I want to win. I hate losing. Losing tonight would have been really tough to get over. That has been the way this season has gone. We just keep finding ways to win.”
And although Messiah will travel to Dallas, Pa. to face league foe Misericordia University Saturday, the seniors say that they are enjoying this victory before they set their focus to the Cougars.
“You can't look past Misericorda,” Miller said. “Last year, they really fought us hard. They have been on the rise the last few years, too. We can't sit back and coast. In a way, it is a good thing especially if we want to look far into the playoffs.”
Weisenborn agreed.
“Tomorrow, we'll step out onto the field ready to go to work,” he said. “We'll work on our fundamentals. We'll continue to work on identifying our mistakes and working to get better.”
For the seniors, their work ethic is driven by one cause.
“We want a MAC championship,” Cureton said. “We want it so bad. We lost in the championship game freshman year, sophomore year we didn't make it, last year we lost in the semis. We've all been there, but we want to win it. This is a special group of guys and we truly believe we can do it.”
The quest for the goal continues Saturday at Misericordia.
Game time is set for 1 p.m.
