GRANTHAM, Pa. – Messiah held an early 12-7 lead before Arcadia scored four goals in the fourth quarter which cut the Falcons lead to 12-11 with eight minutes remaining. The Messiah College men's lacrosse team was able to hold the Knights attack and tally the final three goals in the last six minutes to earn a 15-11 victory on Wednesday night.

The Falcons improve to 7-5 overall and 4-1 in the MAC Commonwealth, while the Knights drop to 7-6 on the season and 2-2 in the conference. Garrett Amsbaugh powered the offense with five goals on 13 shots, while Joseph Franken added three goals on a team-high 15 shots. In net, Evan Stoker stopped 10 shots.

With the game tied at 6-6 midway through the second, Messiah took control with three tallies before headed into halftime up 9-6. The Knights battled back and pull back by one before Messiah had a late fourth quarter push that would give the Falcons a 15-11 victory.

Battle of Runs
Off the opening faceoff, the Knights struck first just 16 seconds into the game and earned an early 1-0 lead. Exactly a minute later, Messiah answered with their own tally from Franken, his first goal of the day. A minute later, the Knights scored two in a span of 49 seconds to take a 3-1 advantage. After being down by two, Messiah stormed back to tie the game with goals from Amsbaugh and Bellows.

Amsbaugh continued his prolific scoring night with a goal off a turnover, giving the Falcons a 4-3 advantage which made Arcadia call a timeout. Amsbaugh kept the Falcons' momentum going with another goal driving through the defense and finding an opening in the top right corner of the cage. His two goals gave Messiah a 5-3 lead.

Arcadia ended its nine-minute scoreless drought with two goals in the final four minutes. Wesley Sporer and Clo Muscara concluded the opening period with tallies, tying the game 5-5 heading into the second period.

Bursts of Attack
Amsbaugh kept on finding the back of the cage as he opened the second quarter scoring five minutes into the period from a Dylan Gillisse pass. After Amsbaugh's goal, Arcadia responded with a goal of its own to tie the game up at 6-6, tying the game for the third time. Both teams were held scoreless for the next six minutes until the Falcons had a three-goal barrage.

The three-goal span started with Hunter Bellows finding an opening in the defense and burring a shot into the back of the net with 1:22 left in the second. A minute later, Cory Hurst sent a bullet into the back of the net and Liam Lilienthal concluded the first half with a goal, giving Messiah a 9-6 advantage heading into the half. Messiah held a 23 -17 shots advantage as they headed into the halftime break.

The second half began with Lilienthal finding the driving Hurst who gathered the pass and scored. Hurst extended the Falcons lead to 10-6 early in the the second half, the only extra-man opportunity goal of the game.

Neither team was able to put a tally on the scoreboard for the next 10 minutes. Gillisse broke that scoreless drought after catching the right side of the net for the goal, giving Messiah an 11-6 lead. Out of a timeout with 25 seconds left, Arcadia scored and earned the final goal of the third period. The Falcons headed into the fourth with a 11-7 cushion.

Coming Down The Stretch
The fourth quarter began with Messiah adding a tally two minutes into the period. Amsbaugh gained a pass from Gillisse and fired a shot off the ground into the cage for a Falcons 12-7 advantage. Arcadia answered with four-straight goals which narrowed the deficit to one goal at 12-11 with 7:29 remaining in the game.

Messiah called a timeout following the span of goals by the Knights. The break helped the Falcons to score three in the final six minutes of play and hold on for the 15-11 triumph.

What's Up Next
The Falcons begin a three-game road trip starting on Saturday, April 13 as they travel to Lebanon Valley. Game gets underway at 1:00 p.m.