ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Messiah men's lacrosse overcame a three-goal halftime deficit to defeat the Eastern University Eagles by a score of 8-7 on Saturday afternoon. With piles of snow lining the field, the Falcons outscored the Eagles 6-2 over the final 30 minutes, including 4-1 in the fourth quarter to grab the come-from-behind victory.
 
The win for Messiah avenges a defeat at the hands of Eastern last season by the same score, even though that contest went to triple overtime. Messiah improves to 3-4 on the year, while Eastern falls to 2-5.
 
It was the Garrett Amsbaugh show offensively for the Falcons, as the sophomore tallied half of Messiah's eight goals. Messiah outshot Eastern 40-30 in the game and enjoyed a significant advantage in the face off department, as Lucas Honebrink returned from injury to win 14 of the 19 face offs in the game.
 
Amsbaugh got the scoring started midway through the first quarter to put Messiah up 1-0 with 7:09 on the clock. However, Eastern would go on a run over the next 10 minutes, as the Eagles recorded four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead with 12:31 remaining in the half. Amsbaugh notched his second score of the contest off a feed from Dylan Gillisse two minutes later, but the Eagles registered another goal before halftime to take a 5-2 lead over Messiah.
 
It was quite the tale of two halves, though, as the Falcons shot out of the gate in the third quarter with goals from Luke Hall and Amsbaugh again to cut the deficit to one. Eastern pushed the lead back to two with 4:20 left in the third on a goal by Trent Ashton, and that 6-4 score would hold going into the final period.
 
The fourth quarter belonged to Messiah, as in the first three minutes and 29 seconds of the period, the Falcons scored four times to reverse the lead on Eastern and go up 8-6. Amsbaugh started the run with his fourth score of the game, and Lucas Honebrink picked up the resulting face off and sprinted down the field to tie the game just seven seconds later. Hunter Bellows gave Messiah the lead at the 12:15 mark, and Joseph Franken provided some insurance with his fifteenth goal of the season to make it 8-6 with 11:31 to play.
 
That insurance goal turned out to be very necessary, as Eastern scored with just over five minutes left to cut the deficit to one. However, the only shot on goal that the Eagles registered before the final horn was saved by Evan Stoker, preserving the 8-7 victory.
 
Messiah will look to carry the momentum from today's win into next week as the Falcons begin conference play on Thursday, Mar. 29 at Arcadia. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.