GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's lacrosse team earned an 18-7 victory over the visiting Hood Blazers on Wednesday afternoon. Messiah scored 14 of the final 17 goals in the contest to run away with the double-digit victory. Abby Howard and Abigail Evans each scored four goals to lead the Messiah offense as a total of nine different Falcons scored in the game.
 
Messiah moves to 5-1 in the MAC Commonwealth with the victory and will be back in action next Wednesday when they travel to Stevenson to square-off with the conference-leading Mustangs at 7:00 p.m.
 
Even Early On
Messiah quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a trio of goals in the first 8:02 of the game. Abby Howard scored a pair of unassisted tallies with Joanna King finding Abigail Evans in between the two scores from Howard.
 
Over the next eight minutes, the Blazers put together their strongest run of the game with four goals against just one for the Falcons to level the match at 4-4. Rachel Slater fueled the Blazers' push with a pair of goals in the game.
 
Falcons Pull Away
With the game tied 4-4, Abby Howard scored an unassisted tally with 12:45 remaining in the half to kick-off a 6-0 Messiah run over the next 12 minutes. During the streak, Howard scored twice and Messiah collected goals from Mckenna Edwards, Joanna King, Annika Johnsen, and Jamie Bishop to take a 10-4 lead late in the half.
 
Jess Lyons scored an impressive tally with five seconds remaining in the first half for the Blazers to cut Messiah's lead to five at 10-5, heading into the half.
 
Hood scored the first goal of the second half with Rachel Slater's third goal of the game, but Messiah responded with eight-straight tallies from six different players to take an 18-6 lead with under 10 minutes remaining. Edwards and Evans each scored twice during the run to lead the Falcons with Abbi Munson capping off the streak with an impressive spinning goal for the final tally of the streak.
 
Jamie Bishop, Amanda Wadsworth, and Makenzie Schnur also found the back of the cage during the run.
 
The Blazers collected the final goal of the game with exactly four minutes remaining in the contest, but Messiah earned the 18-7 victory.
 
In the Box Score
Between the pipes, Amber Orner and Heather Burnham split time in goal, with both goalies playing 30 minutes. Orner allowed five goals in the first half while picking up one save while Burnham collected three saves against just two goals.
 
Offensively, Howard and Evans each collected four goals and one assist to lead the team with five points each. Edwards scored three times and Bishop added two of her own to account for the four Messiah multi-goal scorers.
 
Joanna King led the Falcons with three assists while also scoring a goal for four total points.
 
What's Up Next
Messiah will take off for the Easter weekend before returning to action in a week against the Stevenson Mustangs. The Falcons will travel to Owings Mills on Apr. 24 for a 7:00 p.m. game against the Mustangs, who are 5-0 in the conference this season.