Grantham, PA - Messiah men's lacrosse raced out to a 10-1 halftime lead and never looked back, defeating the Knights of Arcadia University 14-5 on Wednesday night.
The Falcons outshot the Knights 63-22, and picked up 18 more groundballs (51-33). Messiah continued their trend of winning the turnover battle, causing 20 while Arcadia caused just 10.
Career Night for Franken
Matthew Franken scored a game-high and career-high six goals and added one assist, increasing his team-leading season total to 29. He has also tallied at least six points in his last four games.
Red-Hot Start
It truly was a fast start, as
Blake Knobloch scored just 76 seconds into the game.
Joseph Franken and Knobloch again scored within 43 seconds of each other to put the Falcons up 3-0 just five minutes into the game.
Lorenzo DiPasquale tallied next for Messiah at the 6:58 mark, and then
Matthew Franken began his scoring barrage with two goals before the horn sounded on the first quarter to put Messiah up 6-0. The second quarter was much of the same, as two more
Matthew Franken scores were bookended by goals from
Joseph Franken and
Justin Bradley gave Messiah a 10-0 lead with 9:05 to play in the half.
Arcadia's Clo Muscara would put the Knights in the scoring column before the break, scoring his 17th goal of the year with three minutes left in the period, and Messiah took a 10-1 lead into halftime.
Falcons Take Foot off the Gas In Second-Half
The third quarter was once again not kind to Messiah, as they were outscored 3-1 in the period. Over the course of the season, the third quarter is the only session where the Falcons have not outscored their opponents by at least ten, and are in fact losing, as opponents have totaled 28 third quarter scores to Messiah's 26.
The fourth and final period went much better, as
Matthew Franken scored his sixth goal of the night less than a minute in, and Knobloch and
Luke Hall added scores to give Messiah the 14-5 victory.
Next Up
Messiah improves to 6-4 overall and 4-0 in the MAC Commonwealth. They next take the field at Lebanon Valley College next Wednesday, Apr. 19, at 4:00 p.m.
