Box Score
Grantham, PA - The Messiah College Falcons opened up their 2013 campaign against #16 Gettysburg College Saturday afternoon. Despite trailing just 2-1 after one quarter, the Falcons gave up four Bullet goals in the second to trail 6-1 at the half. The Falcons rallied to add three more goals in the second half, but the Bullets' offense wouldn't rest, scoring five more goals for the 11-4 victory.
Senior
Heath Kupecky led the Falcons on the scoresheet with two goals.
Andrew Harris and
Ryan Mayer each added a tally for the Falcons. The Bullets were paced by Jameson Smith's five-point afternoon, as he scored three goals and assisted on two others.
Goalie
Jon Weimer made 13 stops in the net for the Falcons, while opposing goalie J.T. McCook collected nine in the win.
The Bullets got the scoring started just 1:07 into the contest as the Falcons defensive unit failed to gain possession off two saves from Weimer. They would push their lead to two three mintues later on a man-up opportunity after a slashing penalty against the Falcons'
Will Franken.
A laser shot off the stick of Kupecky on a crisp feed from
Brian Meenan found twine with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter, cutting the Bullet lead to just one heading into the second quarter.
From there the Falcons struggled at times to get it going in their offensive zone. A combination of poor stick handling and pressure defense from the Bullets kept the Falcons' offense off-balance for much of the second and third quarters. Consequently, the Bullet offense held possession for the majority of the two quarters, putting together a string of nine goals while keeping the Falcons off the board for nearly 23 minutes.
Despite staring at an 11-1 deficit, the Falcons continued the pysical play they had been dishing out all afternoon, which, in turn, led to three straight Falcon goals and zero goals allowed over the final 22 minutes of play.
"I thought our guys played more physical than I have seen this program play in recent memory," head coach Geof Weisenborn said after the game. "It was reassuring to see these guys go out there and give it their all for sixty minutes against a quality opponent like Gettysburg."
The Falcons wer outshot in the contest 54-24, and picked up 11 fewer groundballs (27-16) than the visitors. On the clearing side of the ball, each team finished with similar results, missing six of their attempted clears throughout the game.
With the loss the Falcons drop to 0-1 on the season and 0-13 overall against the Bullets all-time. Gettysburg starts the season 1-0.
The Falcons will have little time to reflect on the loss as Marymount University comes to Grantham on Wednesday for the first-ever meeting between these two programs. Opening face is slated for 6:30 p.m.
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