SCRANTON, Pa. - The No. 16 Messiah women's lacrosse team opened the 2019 season on Saturday afternoon by falling to the Scranton Royals by a 22-7 final. After Scranton scored twice to open the game, Messiah responded with tallies from Abby Howard and Annika Johnsen to tie the game at 2-2 less than five minutes into the contest.
 
The Royals responded with a 10-2 run to open up a 12-4 lead early in the second-half before earning the 22-7 victory.
 
Messiah's Abby Howard and Katelyn Pearson each scored twice in the game, while Mckenna Edwards finished with three assists to lead the Falcons while Raegen Dunn and Halle Conklin each tallied four goals for Scranton.
 
Messiah will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Gettysburg to square off with the No. 1 Bullets.
 
Back and Forth Start
Scranton's Halle Conklin claimed the first draw control of the season and promptly went and scored 11 seconds late to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. A minute and a half later, Conklin doubled the Scranton lead with her second goal in as many minutes.
 
Despite the fast start from Conklin and the Royals, Messiah responded with two goals in the next three minutes. Abby Howard got Messiah on the board just 30 seconds after Conklin's second goal thanks to an assist from Mckenna Edwards. Annika Johnsen then tied the game up with an unassisted tally with 25:37 remaining in the half.
 
Scranton Controls
With the game tied 2-2, Scranton rattled off four-straight goals and ended the half on a 9-2 run to take an 11-4 lead into the break. Scranton controlled a majority of the half, outshooting the Falcons 23-8 during the 30-minute period, but Messiah did score two goals in a five-minute span to pull within three at 7-4 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the period.
 
Jamie Bishop notched her first goal of the year, scoring an unassisted tally with 14:23 remaining in the half. Four and a half minutes later, Abby Howard scored her second goal of the half to close the gap to three at . The Royals responded with four goals in the final 10 minutes to push their lead to seven at 11-4.
 
After the break, the Royals continued to pressure the Falcons with nine of the first 10 goals in the second half to take a 10-5 lead with nine minutes remaining. Katelyn Pearson was the lone Falcon to score in the early portion of the half with a goal assisted by Mckenna Edwards less than four minutes into the half.
 
In total, the Royals went on an 18-3 run across the final 21 minutes of the first half and the first 21 minutes of the second half.
 
Late Tallies
Messiah finished out the game with two goals in the final nine minutes of play thanks to tallies from Pearson and Gabi Griffith. The tallies came back-to-back with Griffith finding the back of the net off an assist from Edwards, her third of the game.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will stay on the road for their next game as they head to Gettysburg to take on the No. 1 Bullets on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday's game will be the first contest of the season for Gettysburg, who is coming off their second-straight National Championship in 2018.