Frostburg, MD – The Messiah College men's lacrosse team lost a tight defensive battle to the Bobcats of Frostburg State 8-6 Wednesday evening. The matchup proved to be a back and forth battle with the score being tied five times with four different lead changes.
 
The Falcons struck first when the Bobcats gave Messiah an extra man opportunity. During the opportunity, Matthew Franken found Tyler Goglio for the early 1-0 lead. Just a minute later, Frostburg notched the score at one with a goal from Tate Rolland.
 
Messiah regained the lead when Matthew Franken dished out another assist, this time to Trey Hanshew for the score.
 
Tate Rolland tallied another score for Frostburg to begin the second quarter of play and tied the score at two a piece. The Bobcats took their first lead of the game Nick Stailey found Blake Grudzien on the crease who had a quick stick shot for the goal.
 
Justin Bradley responded for the Falcons when he perfected a split dodge on his Bobcat defender and finished with a left handed shot. Frostburg pulled ahead of Messiah off a fast break opportunity. Chase Cullison pushed the ball down the field and found Blake Grudzien for the 4-3 advantage.
 
The Bobcats tacked on another goal in the second quarter with a left handed shot from Adam Gross for a 5-3 lead. Messiah narrowed Frostburg's lead with under a minute remaining in the first half when Trey Hanshew ripped a shot for the score.
 
The Falcons came out aggressive in the second half when Blake Knobloch circled around the cage and found an angle for the goal to tie the score at five. Messiah recaptured the lead when Matthew Franken used a split dodge to get space and fired off a well-placed bounce shot for the goal.
 
Next, Tate Rolland tallied his third goal of the game for Frostburg and tied the scored at six heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The fourth quarter began with Frostburg gaining a 7-6 lead from a goal from Keegan Colegrove. With less than four minutes in regulation, Frostburg added another goal when Michael Kibler found a wide-open Nate Collins on the crease for a two goal lead.
 
Messiah will be back in action this Saturday when the travel to Elizabethtown, Pa. to take on the Blue Jays at 1:00 p.m.