Grantham, PA - Claire Stikeleather scored a late game-winner and the Falcons held on for a 12-11 win over No. 6 College of New Jersey on Saturday afteroon. The Falcons built an 11-5 lead in the second-half before the Lions rallied to score six-straight goals and tie the game. Stikleather's goal came with just over three minutes to play off a feed from Ida Ehrhardt, and proved to be the game-winner.

Eight different Falcons (3-3) scored in the game, with Carly Bajus, Jenna Stover, Marybeth Bindel, and Stephanie Athens each tallying twice. The Lions (2-1) were led by Kendal Borup, Ava Fitzgerald, and Cortney Natalicchio who combined to tally 10 goals. Alexa Dipeso was strong in the cage for the Falcons and finished with 13 saves.

At the start of the game Messiah went down 2-0 before scoring five unanswered goals to take a 5-2 lead. Stover tallied the final two goals of that strech, the second of which was assisted by Liz Brennan from behind the cage. After Fitzgerald cut into the lead for TCNJ, Brennan then tallied herself off a free-postion shot to put Messiah up 6-3.

Soon leading 5-4, Athens and Bindel each tallied to build the Messiah lead to 8-4 entering halftime.

Messiah started the second-half by scoring another two goals, the last of which came from Athens. That goal also finished a 10-2 run by Messiah that spanned 30:18 from the first-half through second-half.

But as impressive as that stretch was, TCNJ had an answer. With Messiah eventually leading 11-5 with 23:26 to play, the Lions rolled off six-straight goals to tie the game. Borlup tallied three of her four goals in that run, using her height and length to frustrate the Falcons' defense.

With the game now tied, Messiah fans probably could help but think of losses this season to both Dickinson (8-7, 2OT) and No. 13 York (8-7), both of which ended in stunning defeat. On this day, however, Messiah would deliver the winning blow, and it would come from Stikeleather. With just over three minutes to play, Ehrhardt found the team's leading scorer on her run across the 8-yard line, and Stikeleather turned quickly to fire past goalie Kelly Schlupp. The Falcons leaped in celebration, though there was a lot of game yet to be played.

With 92 seconds to play Fitzgerald almost tied the game on two different shots, but her first hit the post and her second was saved by Dipeso. A minute later, after her own turnover on the clear attempt, Dipeso caused a final turnover by the Lions and Molly Devilbiss scooped up the loose ball to run out the clock.

TCNJ finished with 28 shots to Messiah's 27, and both teams collected 22 groundballs. Messiah took an important edge in draw controls, however, 14-11.

With back-to-back thrilling games with ranked teams, Messiah will a few days to regroup before they play No. 1 Franklin & Marshall on Wednesday, Mar. 18. The two teams will play Clearwater, Fla. as part of their respective Spring Break trips.