OWINGS MILLS, Md. - Stevenson University raced out to an 8-1 lead at the end of the first quarter and never let up, outscoring Messiah men's lacrosse in each period on their way to a 22-7 victory on Saturday night.

With the loss, Messiah suffers their first conference defeat of the season to fall to 4-1 in the MAC Commonwealth and 7-5 overall. Stevenson improves to 4-0 in the conference and 6-6 on the year.

Garrett Amsbaugh (3 goals, 2 assists) and Joseph Franken (2 goals) combined for most of the Falcon offense on the night. Stevenson star JT Thelen tallied six goals and three assists in the winning effort.

Stevenson was able to rack up 71 shots over the 60 minutes of action, including 44 on goal. As a result, Falcon keeper Evan Stoker compiled 22 saves, the most in a game that the junior has recorded all season. 

It was all Mustangs right from the start, as Stevenson rattled off the first seven goals of the game to go ahead 7-0 still with six minutes remaining in the first quarter. Messiah showed signs of life over the next 12 minutes, trading scores with the Mustangs to bring the score to 9-3 with 8:45 left in the opening half. Included in that stretch were two scores from Amsbaugh and Steven Dunn's second goal of the season that came as the Falcons were a man down.

However, Stevenson would tally four more unanswered goals before the break, taking a 13-3 lead at halftime. Messiah was able to score three goals in the first eleven minutes of the second-half, but it would not be enough as Stevenson kept the pressure on and finished the game on a 7-1 run to win by the final score of 22-7.

The 22-7 margin of defeat (15 goals) is the highest for Messiah since Apr. 16, 2008 when they lost to Gettysburg by a final of 20-3 (17), which was also the last time that the Falcons have given up at least 20 scores.

Messiah will look to regroup and reload as they will continue conference play by hosting Hood College on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.