Annville, PA –  After a solid second half performance, the Messiah College men's lacrosse team defeated the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen 9 to 6. The Falcons moved to 5-0 in the MAC Commonwealth and 7-4 overall.

Messiah outshot the Dutchmen 55-23 but only led 3-2 after the first two quarters. Messiah's offense was ignited in the second half and they picked up another conference victory to remain undefeated in the MAC Commonwealth.

Five different Falcons contributed on the scoreboard. Blake Knobloch led the Falcons with three goals, while Joseph Franken and Luke Hall each added two goals. Dylan Gillisse scored the first and only goal in the first period. Justin Bradley delivered Messiah's final goal to give the Falcons the 9-6 victory.

Low Scoring First Half
The Falcons outshot the Dutchmen 24-12 in the first two quarters but only scored three total goals in the first half of play. Although they didn't terminate as much as they would have liked too, Messiah's defense did an excellent job holding their own; they allowed zero goals in the first quarter and only two in the second. The Falcons did an outstanding job taking care of the ball in the first half. They only had three of their total 15 turnovers in the first thirty minutes of play.

Knobloch's Hat Trick
Blake Knobloch came alive in the second half collecting one goal in the third quarter and two in the fourth. His first goal came with three minutes remaining in the third to give Messiah the 5-4 lead over Lebanon Valley. His second goal came at the beginning of the fourth when Messiah had a man-up advantage. Liam Lilienthal delivered the pass to Knobloch and he found the back of the cage. His third and final goal, came off of Justin Bradley's assist at the top of the circle to give the Falcons a 8-5 lead.  

Second Half Scoring
Messiah continued to control the tempo and maintain a lot of offensive possession in the second half. They outshot the Dutchmen 31-11 in the final thirty minutes of action. Messiah was able to collect three goals in the third and three goals in the fourth to seal their win over Lebanon Valley. Along with Knobloch's hat trick, Joseph Franken scored both his goals in the second half of play and Justin Bradley collected his goal with 2:11 left  to give Messiah the 9-6 win.

Other Notable Stats
The Falcons dominated on faceoffs and groundballs in their game against the Dutchmen. Messiah won 12 of 18 faceoffs and gathered 41 groundballs. The Falcons were also 19-19 on clear attempts while the Dutchmen were only 17 of 25.

In the Box
Sam Stengel played all 60 minutes between the pipes for the Falcons. He collected nine saves on the afternoon and picked up his sixth win as keeper this season.

Next Up
Messiah will be back in action on Apr. 22 when they host Lycoming College at 1:00 p.m.