Grantham, PA – No.1 Messiah College men's soccer scored three times in the first 20 minutes en route to a convincing 4-0 win over Lycoming in the Commonwealth Championship. The win gave Messiah their eighth conference title in the past nine seasons. It also gave them the automatic qualifying bid into the NCAA Championships Tournament for the 18th-straight season.
Tonight's game was a postseason rematch of last season's shootout decision for the Warriors, a 4-5 final that ended the Falcons' seven-year run as conference champs. That game was 0-0 heading into the shootout. Tonight, it was 3-0 Messiah after just 19:40 of play.
Jack Thompson put the Falcons on the board in the 10th minute, sending home a shot from six yards out.
Brian Ramirez set up the goal with a high serve over keeper Connor Keenan from the right end line, with a defender failing to clear it as Thompson collected and fired.
Just three minutes later
Jacob Bender tallied for the first time this season to give Messiah a 2-0 lead. His shot came from just inside the top of the 18 on the right side, as he overlapped
Mike Kovach in the middle. Kovach left the ball off for Bender, who stepped once to avoid his defender before curling a perfect left-footed strike to the far post.
Just like that, Messiah had a 2-0 lead, but they weren't done. In the 20th minute outside back
Bryant Myer tallied in the most unlikely of fashions. He initially took possession in front of the Messiah bench—three-quarters of the field away from the goal—and started to press forward. Without any Warrior stopping him, he continued over the midfield line and towards the top of the 18. Moving also to the middle as he penetrated forward, Myer took a bump while crossing over the 18 but managed to fire while rolling forward. He got his feet just as the ball was crossing the goal line, with Keenan and the Lycoming defense shocked at what had just happened.
All in all the first-half was dominated by the Falcons. They outshot the Warriors 13-1 and controlled territory for long stretches.
The second-half was much of the same, though Messiah attempted just four more shots. In the 58th minute
Jeremy Payne completed the scoring with a strong header off a serve by Myer. The goal was his team-leading 19th of the season.
The loss dropped Lycoming to 15-2-4, while Messiah improved to 19-0-1.
Fans are encouraged to follow
GoMessiah.com for information on the NCAA Championships Tournament that is set to start next weekend;
GoMessiah.com will post the link to the Selection Show which will air on Monday afternoon.
