Box Score
Fredericksburg, VA - The Falcons go the distance to defeat the #20 University of Mary Washington Eagles on Wednesday 10-9.
Lizzy Keeney put away two overtime goals to take down the Eagles on their home turf.
The first of the overtime goals came with just eight seconds left in the second OT period to send the game to a sudden victory period. That's when she scored her second goal in extra time to give the win to the Falcons. The draw-control was won by
Cecilia Kjellman and 47 seconds later Keeney sealed the deal.
The first half was back-and-forth with each team controlling possession for significant lengths of time. The defense and goalies played a big part in this game,
Taylor Phillips had 10 saves to Kathryn Stiltz's 15. At the end of the first half, the score was 4-3 UMW.
The game was very evenly matched throughout, each team coming back from a goal or two down. This was especially apparent in the second half. Just under four minutes in, the Eagles scored a goal to go up 5-3.
The Falcons responded to the two-goal deficit by going on a 4-0 run, holding the Ospreys scoreless for almost 22 minutes of the second half. Highlighting the run was the fact that the four goals were scored by four different players for Messiah.
"During that 4 goal run, we were playing great team defense and were pushing the ball harder to the cage," said head coach
Heather Greer after the game. "It felt good to finally string a few goals together and we wanted to keep that momentum going throughout the rest of the game."
At the end of the 21:40 drought for UMW was a goal from Megan Gersbeck, her second of the game. However, Messiah would respond with a goal of their own just 1:44 later, keeping the lead at two, 8-6. That goal was scored by
Cecilia Kjellman, which was her fourth of the game, leading the team.
Messiah may have been quick to count their chickens, as they would receive a yellow card and go a man down with just over a minute to go. A goal was converted in the man-up situation and the Eagles were eager to get to the draw control.
UMW took advantage of the momentum, winning the ensuing draw control and taking the ball down the field through the defense for a goal just 14 seconds after the previous one.
"We definitely put ourselves in a tough spot...but giving up is never ever an option. We are a resilient team, we kept our cool and got to work," said Greer about starting the first overtime period.
The first half of overtime was much like the rest of the game, but the Falcons won the draw at the start and held it the entire four minutes. No goals were scored and the teams switched fields and continued play.
Just over a minute into the second half of overtime, the Falcons got another one of their five yellow cards on the day to give the Eagles a free position shot. They took advantage and converted to go up 9-8.
Things started to look bleak for Messiah but they did what coach told them and didn't give up.
Emily Mumford came up with a huge caused turnover with about 50 seconds left on the clock and the Falcons started down the field. Some clever passing helped the ball to find the cradle of
Lizzy Keeney's stick from
Gabrielle Hamelryck. She quickly turned in front of the goal about two yards out and fired a sidearm shot past Stiltz with just 8 seconds to go.
So the game went into double overtime, but this time it was a sudden-victory scenario. The Falcons, for the only time in the overtime periods between both teams, won the draw control and possession stayed with them. Again the ball found Keeney's stick from Hamelryck and she made her own path to the goal to put away the game-winner.
“She does great under pressure,” said Greer about Keeney, “but we needed everybody to do their job in order to make that [goal] happen.”
The win takes Messiah to 2-3 on the season while UMW falls to 3-3 overall.
