Grantham, PA – A sunny season-opener on a new turf field was spoiled by conference juggernaut—and No. 4-ranked—Stevenson as Messiah men's lacrosse fell 13-1.
 
Messiah chased an early two-goal deficit to make it 2-1 on a tally by Will Franken, but Stevenson responded to take a 4-1 lead after the first quarter. As the half wore on the Mustangs' deliberate offense was challenged well by the Falcons' defense, but Messiah was unable to generate chances of their own.
 
Early in the second quarter a slew of penalties by both teams left Stevenson in a man-up opportunity, and they quickly converted off the stick of Pat Candon. The play started in the midfield with Tony Rossi, and he attacked straight to goal and found Candon with a sharp pass to the right side for the score.
 
Candon tallied again with five minutes left in the half, making the score 6-1. With just under three minutes left, Justin Bradley's attempt to narrow the deficit bounced off the turf and hit the post before bouncing away.
 
Messiah's deficit remained 6-1 into the third quarter where Stevenson took an 18-3 edge in shots and added two more goals. In the fourth, the Mustangs pulled away with five more tallies.
 
Candon finished with five goals for Stevenson and the trio of Billy Burgoyne, Paul Danko, and Rossi each scored two goals.
 
As for the Falcons, the statistics suggested a more even contest, though Stevenson did finish with a 50-22 edge in shots. Still, Messiah had just one more turnover (26-25), one less faceoff win (9-8), and five less groundballs (38-33), suggesting a more even battle. Nevertheless, Messiah's inability to generate consistent attacks kept them from catching up on the scoreboard.
 
Franken finished with the lone goal on five shots, and Drew Pagenkopf accounted for the lone assist. Both Brady Marburger and Ryan Mayer collected five groundballs to lead Messiah, and Cody Rogers earned a team-high three caused turnovers.
 
Sam Stengel played the entire first-half and collected four saves in the cage, and Brooks Arnold collected seven saves in the final 30 minutes.
 
The loss dropped Messiah to 0-1 both overall and in the Commonwealth. Stevenson moved to 1-0 in the conference and 1-1 overall after losing their season-opener to No. 2 RIT.
 
The Falcons will next play on Saturday when they host Elizabethtown at 2:00 p.m.