Elizabethtown, PA - Elizabethtown College broke a 5-5 tie with 4:30 to play and added some insurance in the final minute to edge Messiah College 7-5 on Saturday afternoon. Nick Specht tallied for the go-ahead score after the Blue Jays had called timeout, and Messiah's final attempts at an equalizer were turned away in the defeat. The loss dropped Messiah to 1-3 on the season.

Ryan Van Bochoven scored twice for Messiah with Matthew Franken, Isaac Zorn, and Trey Hanshew tallying a single goal. Sam Stengel was terrific between the pipes as he collected 15 saves to keep the Falcons close throughout.

The teams were unsettled for much of the game in what proved to be a defensive battle. Even still, the turnover numbers were high, especially early, as both teams turned it over five times in the first quarter. Messiah turned it over six more times in the second quarter, but the low-scoring affair had the teams knotted at 3-3 at the break. Messiah scored the final two goals of the first-half, with one each from from Zorn and Hanshew.

In the third quarter Messiah appeared to take a 4-3 lead at the 12:22 mark, but a stick check on Blake Knobloch went against the Falcons and the tally was wiped away and Knobloch was given a three minute non-releaseable penalty. The Falcons played brilliantly over that stretch to kill the penalty, with Stengel collecting a highlight save at the 8:36 mark on a diving shot by Joe Clark.

Their great defensive play was rewarded moments later when Van Bochoven made a great reverse pivot on his defender to get into the cage on left side for a score. The goal put Messiah up 4-3, a lead that carried into the fourth quarter.

Despite winning the opening faceoff and getting a good look from Tyler Goglio, the Falcons saw their fourth quarter lead quickly erased. Clark tallied at the 13:30 mark to tie the game and, less than 90 seconds later, he put Elizabethtown up 5-4 on a man-up opportunity. Messiah responded, however, with Brady Marburger again winning a faceoff and Van Bochoven scoring his second goal of the game. His goal came moments after Knobloch's offering went just right of the cage.

A few minutes later Knobloch came close to giving Messiah the lead on two separate occassions, but Davis Miracle made back-to-back tremendous saves in a span of 55 seconds to keep the game tied. Both shots from Knobloch were on the right side of the cage.

With under minutes to play Elizabethtown advanced into their attack and called timeout to set-up the eventual game-winner. Quick passing around the cage led to Dan Bednarik sending a quick feed to Nick Specht on the right side of the crease for the goal. Specht's release was too fast and from too close for Stengle to react in time.

Marburger did his part to win another faceoff but, as was the story in the final quarter, Miracle came up with another great save on a shot by Blake Knobloch, this time with just 2:52 on the clock. Miracle then turned away a sweeping shot from distance by Isaac Zorn, and the Blue Jays ran the clock down under a minute before calling timeout. Messiah pulled Stengel in an attempt to force a turnover, but the Blue Jays executed swiftly to get a tally on the open net for some insurance.

Elizabethtown finished with a 27-19 edge in shots, and also a noteworthy 37-24 advantage in groundballs. As mentioned, Messiah's Stengle (15 saves) was terrific as was Marburger at the X (12 wins). As the seven goals allowed would indicate, Messiah's defense was solid throughout especially as they held the Blue Jays to just 1-5 on extra man opportunities.

The Falcons will take four days to regroup before they play again on Wednesday, Mar. 9. On that day they'll play a neutral site game with Ohio Wesleyan in Baltimore, Md. at Loyola-Blakefield.