Grantham, PA – No. 1 Messiah field hockey scored five times in the first half on the way to a comfortable 9-0 victory over Arcadia University on Homecoming Day. Six different Falcons scored in the winning effort, including a hat trick for Carissa Gehman and two from Kezia Loht.
 
Messiah outshot Arcadia 31-0 (16-0 on goal) and registered 22 penalty corners. With the win, Messiah improves to 12-1 on the season and 5-0 in the MAC Commonwealth. Arcadia falls to 4-12 and 2-2 in the conference.
 
In the sixth minute, Messiah gained their second penalty corner of the game. Taylor Holt sent it in to Nicole Wilkerson at the top of the circle, who made the stick stop and set up Gehman perfectly to slam the ball through defenders and into the cage.
 
At the 15:02 mark, Moriah Pfautz sent in a hard pass to the front of the cage that was knocked down by Gehman, who quickly spun and poked in her second goal of the game. Just two minutes later, Kaylor Rosenberry set Gehman up for another chance from the right side that was blocked aside by a defender. However, the rebound fell right to Holt at the left post for the easy tap-in.
 
Messiah would add two more goals before halftime, both coming from Loht. On the first, she received a pass from Emily Rubright and lofted a shot over all the defenders that snuck into the top of the cage. Mere minutes later, Emily Schillinger took a shot from the left side that Loht redirected just inside the right post to build the Falcon lead to 5-0.
 
In the opening period, the Falcons outshot the Knights by a count of 20–0 (11-0) on goal, and Messiah took 14 penalty corners to Arcadia's one.
 
Messiah would add to their lead 12 minutes into the second-half, as Rosenberry sent a hard ball in front of the cage that knocked around and bounced to Gehman, who blasted it out of the air and into the back of the cage. With the goal, Gehman notched her fourth career hat trick (second this season).
 
With 16 minutes to play, Rosenberry sent the ball to the top of the circle to a wide-open Kristen Musser, who ripped a shot that bounced through the defense and into the cage for Musser's first career goal.
 
Logan Ryan and Rubright would add tallies late in the game for the Falcons to bring the final score to 9-0.
 
Carissa Gehman led the offensive attack with three goals on six shots (five on goal) and one assist for a total of seven points. To go along with her two goals, Kezia Loht recorded five shots (four on goal). 12 different Falcons notched a shot and eight recorded an assist in the contest.
 
Messiah returns to Anderson Field on Wednesday, Oct. 19 to host Catholic University of America at 7:00 p.m.