Cold Spring Harbor, NY – Messiah men's lacrosse scored four goals in the fourth quarter in a spirited comeback attempt, but the rally fell just short in an 8-7 loss to No. 12 Ohio Wesleyan. Freshman Liam Lilienthal had a great game, scoring the first three goals of his career, and Blake Knobloch recorded two goals and an assist.
 
The Battling Bishops outshot the Falcons 38-31, including 23-10 on goal. Sam Stengel was great in goal, stopping 15 OWU shot attempts. Turnovers and face-offs spelled trouble for Messiah, as they committed 18 turnovers to OWU's 11 were doubled up on face-offs, 13-6.
 
Messiah got on the board first, as Matthew Franken scored just 67 seconds into the contest. Ohio Wesleyan responded with a goal at the 10:46 mark of the first quarter, tying the game at one. With four minutes left in the quarter, Lilienthal scored the first of his three tallies off an assist form Knobloch, and the Falcons took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. OWU took 12 shots in the quarter, but Stengel came up big in goal with six saves.
 
The second quarter belonged to the Battling Bishops, as they scored three unanswered goals and held the Falcons without a shot on goal, taking a 4-2 lead into halftime.
 
Lilienthal opened up the second-half scoring with a goal at the 6:54 mark of the third quarter to cut the deficit to one, but OWU responded with two of their own before the end of the period to take a 6-3 lead with 15 minutes to play.
 
After three goals were scored in each of the first three quarters, the fourth doubled up on that number, with six goals scored on 18 shots. Knobloch got the offensive surge going with an unassisted goal at the 12:33 mark, but Derek Todd answered for the Bishops just a minute later to increase the lead back to 7-4. Knobloch tallied again two minutes later, followed by Lilienthal's third score off a feed from Dylan Gillisse to bring the Falcons within one with 6:24 remaining on the clock.
 
However, Ohio Wesleyan won the resulting face-off, and after Stengel saved one shot, Jack Jeschke found the net for the Bishops to push their lead back to 8-6. OWU won the face-off again, but Messiah was able to thwart the Bishop attack and complete the clear. Luke Hall brought the deficit back to one with a goal at the 2:23 mark, and Isaac Zorn won the ensuing face-off to give the Falcons a chance to tie. However, two Messiah shots went wide, and a turnover at the 1:09 mark gave control of the game back to OWU. After a Bishop shot, Messiah was able to clear but turned the ball over with 13 seconds left, and Ohio Wesleyan earned the 8-7 victory.
 
Derek Todd and Steven Hildebrand scored two goals apiece to lead the Battling Bishops, who improve to 2-1 on the year. Messiah drops to 0-2, with both losses coming in hard-fought contests to NCAA Division III top-12 opponents.
 
The Falcons will return home on Wednesday, March 1 when they take on the Bulldogs of Adrian College at 4:00 p.m.