COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Carissa Gehman tallied goals just before the end of each half and No. 1 Messiah field hockey outshot No. 7 Ursinus College by 21 en route to a 3-0 victory on a rainy Wednesday night.
 
Stalemate to Start
The game began as a defensive battle, as there was no score for the first 30 minutes of play. It was not for lack of effort on the Messiah end, though, as they tallied eight shots and five on goal while keeping the Bears out of both categories in the opening half hour.
 
Falcons Break Through
Just after the 30-minute mark, the Falcons were presented a golden opportunity by the Bears, and Gehman took full advantage. While Ursinus was playing the ball along their back line, a defender mishandled and tipped it right to Gehman, who collected the loose ball and took into the circle for a one-on-one with the goalie. Gehman went to her right and rocketed a sweeping shot that thudded into the back of the cage for her fourth goal of the season.
 
Messiah nearly put a few more on the board in the last couple minutes of the period, as Gehman and Holt each had good looks at the cage that went wide right and wide left, respectively.
 
Chances Abound
Less than five minutes into the second-half, Gehman had a similar chance to the one that she scored on in the first, as she dribbled free down the right side and attempted to fire a shot through the legs of Ursinus goalie Jules Singer. Singer was able to knock it down, but it fell right back to Gehman who wound up for another try but Singer again knocked the ball aside and out of play.
 
The Falcons earned four penalty corners in a row between the 49th and 50th minutes, but were unable to score on all four. They registered shots on two of them, but Gehman's attempt was blocked by a defender and Karalyn Schmidt's try sailed just wide to the left of the cage. Another penalty corner was taken in the 52nd minute, but Taylor Holt's shot as she came back into play from taking the corner went wide left as well.  
 
Messiah had yet another scoring chance in the 63rd minute, as they took the ball deep into the circle and had back-to-back shots by Gehman and Kezia Loht saved by Singer, before a Bear defender was able to knock the ball out of play and end the immediate threat.
 
Déjà Vu
Just like the end of the first-half, the Falcon offense was able to finally beat the Bear defense in the last few minutes of the second period after wearing them out with 21 total shots, 13 of which were on goal. This lead to ten saves for the Bears' Singer in goal.
 
Taylor Holt scored in the 67th minute after taking a penalty corner and racing in to gather a loose ball and punch it in for her second goal of the year. Messiah took nine penalty corners in the game, compared to just one for Ursinus. Gehman would add another score off a great pass from Loht with just 21 seconds remaining in the game to solidify her second multi-goal game in as many contests to open the season. The Falcons went on to win 3-0, improving to 2-0 to start the 2017 campaign.
 
Next Up
Messiah continues their tough nonconference slate this Saturday as they travel to Salisbury University to take on the No. 3 Seagulls at 6:00 p.m.