GRANTHAM, Pa. - No. 7 Messiah women's soccer scored three times in the second-half to take down the Knights of Arcadia University on a beautiful Tuesday evening on Shoemaker Field. The Falcons improve to 8-1-3 on the year and 2-0-1 in the MAC Commonwealth.
Lock Down Defense
Messiah held Arcadia without a shot throughout the first-half before only allowing two shots in the second period, with neither going on goal. Arcadia also only managed one corner kick during the 90 minutes of play.
For their part, Arcadia played very solidly on the back end in the opening period, holding the Messiah offense to just six shots despite the ball being on the Knight's defensive end for most of the half. Arcadia keeper Brianna Johnson was solid in goal, stopping five Falcon attempts. The Falcons' best attempt came in the 38th minute, but it also turned out to be Johnson's best save of the game as Lily Shover rocketed a shot from the top of the box that Johnson had to leap for and punch away over the crossbar with one hand to keep the Falcons off the board.
Tale of Two Halves
The Falcon pressure was finally too much for Arcadia in the second-half, as they scored three times on 11 shots. The opening tally came just seven minutes after the break when
Brooke Firestone sent a ball across the box from the right side that managed to find its way through multiple Knight defenders to a wide open
Emily D'Amico for an easy chip-in at the left post.
Just six minutes later,
Barb Foster sent a dangerous ball into the box that was deflected by an Arcadia defender but fell right to the feet of
Sunny Gelnovatch, who wasted no time in slotting the ball past Johnson to give Messiah a quick 2-0 lead.
The scoring was not quite done yet, as
Julia Kyne decided to get in on the action in the 77th minute. The sophomore did it all herself, taking the ball down the center of the field and beating multiple defenders to the right post before slipping a shot across the net to the left post past a diving Johnson.
Next Up
The Falcons next take the field on Saturday, Oct 14 when they travel to Chester, Pa. to take on Widener University at 7:30 p.m.
