GRANTHAM, Pa. - No. 2 Messiah field hockey scored a pair of goals in each half en route to a 4-0 victory over the visiting Albright Lions on Anderson Field Saturday afternoon. The Messiah victory featured four different goal scorers as the Falcons out shot the Lions 30-1 in the contest.
Kris Levesque scored for the third time in as many games with a tally 13:26 into the contest to dent the scoreboard for the first time. Messiah continued to pressure and eventually doubled the lead off a penalty stroke from
Shayna Landis with under five minutes remaining in the opening half.
Early in the second-half
Casie Stief lifted a penalty corner over the Lions' defense and goalie into the back of the cage for the third goal of the afternoon for Messiah.
Kezia Loht capped off the offensive effort for Messiah with a tally off a rebound in the 50th minute of the match. Loht's fifth goal of the season gave the Falcons their eventual 4-0 margin, moving Messiah to 11-0 on the season and 3-0 in the MAC Commonwealth.
Moments that Mattered
The Flacons earned four shots in the first 12 minutes of the match, but were unable to get on the board until
Kris Levesque scored an impressive goal off an aerial pass from
Kezia Loht 13:26 in to the match. Loht carried the ball into the circle from the right-side before sending a pass high into the air in front of the cage. With the ball well above her head, Levesque swatted the ball out of the air and into the back of the cage for a 1-0 Messiah lead. Levesque's tally was her third of the season and she has now scored in three-straight games.
Nearly 20 minutes later, the Falcons increased their lead to 2-0 thanks to a penalty stroke goal from
Shayna Landis. The Falcons earned the stroke after registering two-straight shots
Emily Knepp and
Taylor Wiederrecht directly in front of the cage. Landis calmly stepped up and delivered a strong strike to give Messiah a 2-0 lead.
The 2-0 lead would remain for nine minutes of play until the
Casie Stief struck just over four minutes into the second-half. On the Falcons' third penalty corner of the half,
Kezia Loht swept a pass to
Casie Stief on the left-side and the senior lifted an aerial shot overtop of the defense and into the right-side of the cage. It was the first goal of the season for Stief.
Less than 10 minutes later the Falcons would push the lead to 4-0 thanks to a goal from
Kezia Loht.
Megan Wetzel sent a hard strike toward the cage from outside the circle that was kicked aside by the Lions' goalie, but the rebound went right to the stick of Loht. After a controlling touch the senior fired a shot into the cage for a 4-0 Messiah lead.
In the Box Score
A quick scan of the box score shows a dominating effort by the Falcons. Messiah out shot the Lions 30-1 in the match, putting 18 shots on target against just one for Albright. Messiah also earned 15 penalty corners in the match and a penalty stroke while conceding just two penalty corners to Albright in the match.
With 18 shots on goal in the match, Messiah pressured the Albright defense throughout the match. The Falcons forced the Lions' goalie Brynne Schoppe to make 11 saves with the team picking up three defensive saves as well. Mia Moshang earned two defensive saves for Albright while Kyra Scerbo picked up one.
Offensively,
Kezia Loht led the Falcons with a pair of assists and a goal in the match.
Messiah worked all 22 players on their roster onto the field during Saturday's victory including
Isabel Villegas, who made her collegiate debut.
What's Up Next
As mentioned, the victory moves the Falcons to 11-0 on the season and improves Messiah's MAC Commonwealth record to 3-0 on the season. The Falcons have now won 55 of the their last 56 games and will put that impressive streak on the line against No. 11 Christopher Newport on Wednesday when they travel to Fredericksburg, Va. for a neutral site match against the Captains at 4:00 p.m. in a non-conference match.
