Chester, PA - The Falcons struggle offensively and dropped a 5-4 defensive battle to the Pride of Widener University. Messiah's four goals is tied for their second lowest scores all season. With the defeat, the Falcons drop to 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the Commonwealth Conference.

The first quarter was an uncharacteristic one for the Falcons filled with turnovers and missed opportunities. The Pride scored the only goal in the quarter right when Messiah killed off a Widener extra-man opportunity. The Widener goal came from Anthony Cipriano and gave the Pride a 1-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

Messiah finally got on the board with an unassisted goal from Justin Bradley. The Falcon midfielder dodged from behind the cage and scored from the right wing and evened the score at one a piece.
 
Next, Widener took advantage of an extra-man opportunity with a goal by Marc LaVine from the right wing. The score gave the Pride a 2-1 lead. The Falcons responded again with another unassisted goal by Justin Bradley to even the score at two.
 
With the score tied, Widener's Marc Lavine scored again by dodging through the middle of the defense and gave the Pride a 3-2 advantage heading into the half.

The third quarter saw both teams defenses thrive and offenses struggle. Each team only scored one goal and couldn't take advantage of scoring opportunities.
 
Widener scored first in the quarter with a goal from Anthony Cipriano, assisted by Patrick Richardson to give the Pride a 4-2 lead. The Falcons countered with a goal of their own from Blake Knobloch on an extra-man opportunity.
 
Tyler Goglio fed Knobloch during the extra-man opportunity and Knobloch ripped a shot for the goal to make the score 4-3 in Widener's favor.

Just when the Falcons thought they stole the momentum, Widener started the fourth quarter with another goal from Marc LaVine. LaVine dodged through the middle of the Falcon defense and found the back of the net for his third goal of the game.

With a 1:10 left in regulation, Tyler Goglio made an impressive dodge behind the cage and scored from the left wing to give the Falcons hope for a comeback. Trailing 5-4 with a 1:00 left, Messiah couldn't find a decent scoring chance and fell to the Pride.

Statistically, the Falcon led in shots (27-23), faceoffs (7-6), but were outhustled in groundballs (23-18).

The Falcons will next play Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. when the travel to Alvernia University to take on the Crusaders.