Owings Mills, MD – The No. 2 Messiah Falcons fell to the No. 1 Stevenson Mustangs in the Commonwealth Championship by an 8-4 score. Messiah was held scoreless throughout three quarters before posting four goals in the fourth. However, the offense started to click too late and the Falcons couldn't complete the comeback.

The first quarter was a close-contested start to the game with both teams playing shutdown defense. The Falcons made a costly mistake and gave Stevenson a man-up opportunity.
 
The Mustangs took advantage of the opportunity with the lone goal of the quarter from their lethal man-up offense. With the score, Stevenson acquired a 1-0 lead into the second quarter.

Stevenson opened up offensively in the second quarter by notching three goals and pulled ahead of Messiah by a 4-0 score. Matt Tompkins who forced a turnover on Sam Stengel created the first goal for the Mustangs. Tompkins quickly found Stephen Banick on the crease and scored on the empty cage.
 
Next, Pat Candon scored twice just 38 second a part from one another. Both goals were similar with Candon circling behind the cage and finding the back of the net.

Stevenson had another three-goal quarter in the third with goals from Kyle D'Onofrio (2) and Billy Burgoyne to increase their lead to 7-0.

The Falcons showed heart in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Mustangs four goals to one.
 
Ryan Van Bochoven tallied the first goal for the Falcons with an outside rip; Justin Bradley recorded the assist. Next, Tyler Goglio found Blake Knobloch on a two-men advantage and collected another goal, narrowing the Mustangs lead to 7-2.
 
Stevenson slowed the Falcons momentum with a sneaky behind-the-back goal from Colin Dabney and increased their lead to 8-2.
 
Messiah got back on track with a goal from Justin Bradley after perfecting a series of dodges. The Falcons struck again with a laser shot from Tyler Goglio to shrink Stevenson's lead to 8-4, but ran out of time to complete the comeback.
 
The Falcons had a tough time finding the back of the net throughout the game by only scoring four goals on 33 shots. In addition, the Mustangs bested the Falcons in face-offs won (13-3) and ground balls (46-42).
 
Overall, the Falcons had a successful season advancing to the Commonwealth Championship and collecting 12 wins, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since 2011.