Messiah University

Glenside, PA – The Falcons scored three second-half goals to run away from Arcadia and win 4-0 on Saturday afternoon. The win moved No. 1 Messiah to 18-0-1 on the season, and 7-0-1 in the Commonwealth Conference.

The win was also Messiah's 14th shutout of the season, giving keeper Audra Larson an NCAA Division III record-tying 54 career shutouts. The mark is also held by Tara Carter '10 of Otterbein and former Falcon goalkeeper Autumn Reilly '12.
 
Holly Burgard put the Falcons up in just the third minute of play, taking a pass from Nikki Elsaesser and sending it through from the middle of the box. The goal was her fifth of the season.
 
Messiah limited Arcadia to just a single shot in the first-half and held that narrow advantage through the intermission.
 
The Falcons controlled territory throughout the second-half, limiting the Knights again to just one shot while taking 14 more of their own.
 
In the 60th minute Kyele Bridel doubled the Falcons' lead with a shot from the six-yard line. The ball was initially sent into the box by a long serve from the left touchline, and it bounced around for a moment before landing at Bridel's feet for the score.
 
With 10 minutes to play Bridel contributed to another goal, this time setting up Erin Sollenberger for a shot from the middle of the 18 for a 3-0 lead. Five minutes later Lydia Eichorn headed through a corner serve from Regina Stump to complete the scoring.
 
Messiah finished with a 22-2 edge in shots and a 10-2 advantage in corners. Veronica Willig collected six saves for the Knights while Larson grabbed two saves for the Falcons.
 
As mentioned, the win kept Messiah unbeaten on the season. They will enter next week's Commonwealth Tournament on Wednesday when they host No. 3-seeded Lebanon Valley at 6:00 p.m. The Falcons will play as the No. 2 seed after Stevenson-- also 7-0-1 in the Commonwealth-- earned the tiebreaker with the Messiah.*

*With each team 7-0-1, with their tie coming to each other, the criteria that established the tiebreaker was goal scored against No. 3 seed Lebanon Valley; Messiah won 1-0 over the Dutchmen, Stevenson 2-0.