Grantham, PA - No. 5 Gettysburg men's lacrosse scored 10 unanswered goals to overcome an early 2-0 hole en route to an 11-4 win over Messiah in the season opener for both teams. Matthew Franken scored twice for the Falcons, and Sean Fumai led the Bullets with five tallies.

Messiah returns to the field next Saturday when they take on Ohio Wesleyan University in a neutral site game on Long Island, New York.
 
Early Advantage
The Falcons held Gettysburg scoreless for the entire first quarter and most of the second frame, too, and they also managed to build a 2-0 lead. Matthew Franken scored both of his goals to help Messiah to that advantage, with the first one coming at the 10:36 mark of the second quarter. Less than four minutes later he scored off a restart when he dodged from behind the cage and quickly turned to fire past goalie Tim Brady.
 
Gettysburg took 18 total shots in the first-half, 10 of which came in the first quarter. But Sam Stengel collected four saves in the opening period to keep the Bullets scoreless. The Bullets' first goal came on their final shot of the half when they took advantage of a Falcon turnover to quickly get to the cage. Fumai tallied off the feed from Jack Finn, and 27 seconds later the teams went to the halftime break.
 
Third Quarter Blues
As it turned out, the Bullets found all they needed in that halftime break. Upon returning to the field they outshot Messiah 13-4 and outscored the Falcons 6-0. Nine of their 13 shots went on goal, and they collected more than twice as many groundballs (10) than their hosts (4). As was an important storyline in their win, they also grabbed six of the quarter's seven faceoffs.
 
Gettysburg's momentum grab was on full display when four different players scored in a span of 5:10 in the middle of the frame.
 
Sean Fumai ended with three goals in the quarter after scoring twice in the final two minutes to give Gettysburg a 7-2 lead.
 
At the end of their run the Bullets finished with 10 unanswered goals to build a 10-2 lead. Sam Kaplan provided a highlight in the fourth quarter when he caught on the crease and fired over his back shoulder for an 8-2 lead.
 
Possession Puzzle
Gettysburg finished with 14 faceoff wins in 19 tries, leaving the Falcons with a limited number of possessions from the midfield X. Ian Olson, who last year collected 54% of his attempts (37-68) had a tough night going 3-13 (23%).
 
Final Games Notes
Lorenzo DiPasquale, who went 2-6 in his work at the faceoff X, collected a game-high four caused turnovers off the bench. He also tied for a game-high with three groundballs, as did Matthew Franken.
 
In the cage Sam Stengel went the distance and collected 13 saves against the 11 goals. Brady recovered from the early Messiah tallies to allow just four total goals against seven saves.
 
Messiah's Blake Knobloch and Justin Bradley each tallied their first goals of the season in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.