Baltimore, MD – After going into halftime down 3-2 at Goucher College, Messiah men's lacrosse scored 10 times in the second-half en route to a 12-6 victory on Wednesday evening.
 
Matthew Franken led the Falcons with four goals and six groundballs, while Blake Knobloch tallied three goals and an assist in the win. Messiah had almost three times as many shots as Goucher, 52-20, and doubled the Gophers up in shots on goal at 24-12. The Falcons also had twice as many groundballs, recording 32 to the Gophers' 16.
 
Falcons Fall Behind Early
Matthew Franken scored his first goal of the night just 54 seconds into the contest, but Goucher answered right back with three goals of their own to take a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.
 
The second quarter was overwhelmingly uneventful, as the teams managed just five shots on goal combined. The lone exciting exception came at the 9:14 mark, as Luke Hall drove down the middle of the field and fired in a goal to cut the deficit in half, making it 3-2 in favor of the Gophers. Goucher would hold on to that lead over the remaining minutes of the first period, going into halftime up by one.
 
Offensive Explosion in Third Quarter
The wall in front of the cages was removed in the third quarter, as five goals were scored in a span of four and a half minutes. Justin Bradley got the run started at the 12:23 mark, as he ripped a shot from the left side past the keeper to tie the game at three. Goucher responded with two quick goals to go back up 5-3, but Messiah answered right back with goals from Blake Knobloch and Matthew Franken to knot the score at five with eight minutes left in the third quarter.
 
Just before the end of the third period, Knobloch wove through the defense and beat the keeper to give the Falcons their first lead since it was 1-0 early. During the quarter, Messiah rattled off 20 shots, seven on goal, and held the Gophers to just five of each.
 
Falcons Pour It On
The fourth quarter belonged to the Falcons, as they outscored Goucher 6-1, outshot them 16-4, and placed nine shots on goal compared to just one. From Knobloch's goal that made the score 5-4 in favor of Goucher, Messiah scored seven unanswered, culminating with a blistering goal from Luke Hall to push the lead to 10-5. A Gopher goal stopped the run momentarily, but Knobloch and Franken would tally again before it was all said and done, and Messiah took the victory by a final score of 12-6.
 
Next Up
With the win, Messiah evens up their season record at 2-2, with both losses coming against teams ranked in the top 15. The Falcons next travel to Christopher Newport University to begin spring break on Saturday, game time set for 1:00 p.m.