Grantham, PA - The Falcons used a fourth quarter surge which included seven unanswered goals and powered past the Knights of Arcadia by a 14-6 score. With the victory the Falcons improved to 11-4 overall and 6-2 in the Commonwealth to secure the No. 2 seed in the Commonwealth Playoffs.
The Falcons set the tempo of the game early with five unanswered goals. Messiah tallied the only four goals of the first quarter and added another to begin the second.
Scorers for the Falcons during the five-goal streak were
Tyler Goglio (2),
Andrew Harris,
Blake Knobloch, and
Ryan Mayer.
Trailing 5-0, the Knights' responded to the Falcons' scoring streak with three unanswered goals of their own. Danny Riley struck first for the Knights and Sean McDonald scored the next two goals for Arcadia to end the first half trailing 5-3 to Messiah.
Will Franken took back the momentum for the Falcons to start the second half with two high-velocity shots that found the back of the cage. Again, the Knights answered with an extra-man goal to end the third quarter and another to start the fourth quarter.
After the Knights scored on an extra-man opportunity to begin the fourth quarter, the Falcons tallied seven unanswered goals and pulled away from Arcadia by taking a 14-5 lead.
Scorers for the Falcons during the seven-goal streak were
Justin Bradley (2),
Tyler Goglio (2),
Andrew Harris,
Drew Pagenkopf, and
Blake Knobloch.
Justin Bradley highlighted the scoring streak when he perfected a swim dodge into a spin dodge and scored for Messiah.
Throughout the game there were 20 penalties committed. The Falcons committed an alarming 16 of those penalties while the Knights only committed four.
Statistically, the Falcons led the Knights in shots (43-30), shots on goal (21-17), ground balls (32-26), and committed fewer turnovers than Arcadia (21-26).
The Falcons earned the No. 2 seed in the Commonwealth Playoffs with the victory and will host the No. 3 seed Albright Lions. Messiah defeated Albright earlier this year in a thrilling 9-8-overtime victory.
