GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah women's lacrosse team knocked off No. 20 University of Scranton on their home turf by a final score of 14-11 on Saturday afternoon. The Falcons built a 5-2 lead midway through the opening half and held the lead for the next 40 minutes until Scranton's Halle Conklin scored back-to-back goals to knot the game at 11-11.
Messiah responded with three goals in the final two minutes of play to claim their first victory of the season.
Joanna King scored the go-ahead goal with 1:58 remaining in regulation and
Hope Flack tallied a pair of insurance scores to give Messiah the 14-11 victory.
Flack led the way for the Falcons with a half dozen tallies and nine draw controls. King netted a pair of goals while assisting on three others. Between the pipes,
Heather Burnham made 13 saves, tying a career-high.
Messiah evens their record at 1-1 to open the new season. The Falcons will be back in action on Wednesday when they host the Dickinson Red Devils at 4:00 p.m. on the Lacrosse Turf.
Early Advantage
Scranton's Jill Henson opened Saturday's scoring with a tally two minutes into the contest to give the Royals a 1-0 advantage. Messiah responded with five of the next six goals to take a 5-2 lead with just over 15 minutes remaining in the opening half.
That opening burst was fueled by goals from five different Falcons.
Abby Howard and
Joanna King both scored unassisted goals to give Messiah their first lead of the season. After Henson netted her second score in the game's first 10 minutes, the score was level at 2-2-.
Jana Krihak,
Abigail Evans, and
Hope Flack all found the twine during a two-minute span to bump the Messiah lead to three at 5-2. King dished out assists on the scores from Krihak and Flack.
Flack's first tally of the season came with 15:43 remaining in the opening half and gave Messiah their largest lead of the afternoon at three.
Close Throughout
The next 40 minutes were a back-and-forth battle with the Falcons holding the upper hand throughout. The two teams traded tallies with Scranton pulling within two at the half after a Maggie Smith score made it 7-5 Messiah.
Just over a minute into the second half,
Katelyn Pearson bullied her way to the left post and tucked a shot inside the post to put Messiah back up by three at 8-5. Back-to-back tallies from the Royals made it a one-goal game with 19:35 to play, but
Amanda Wadsworth found
Hope Flack for the score to bump the lead to 9-7.
The Royals countered with scores to pull within one goal on two more occasions in the next five minutes, but goals by Flack and Wadsworth would increase Messiah's cushion to two.
After trailing for 40-striaght minutes, Scranton finally leveled the score with back-to-back goals from Halle Conklin. The second of those unassisted tallies came with 7:11 remaining in regulation and tied the game at 11-11.
It took Messiah a little over five minutes, but the Falcons would respond.
Closing Time
The score remained even into the final two minutes of play when
Joanna King would give the Falcons a 12-11 lead with a driving goal from the right-side. King turned the corner on her defender and went to cage, battling her way right in front of the crease for the low shot that beat the goalie for the go-ahead tally.
After a Scranton timeout,
Grace Gormley won the draw control for the Falcons and Messiah settled into their possession. After milking the clock for nearly a minute,
Hope Flack made a similar run to King's from a moment early. Her shot tucked under the bar and put the Falcons up by two at 13-11 with 1:04 remaining in the game.
Another draw control for the Falcons kept the ball away from the Royals and in the final seconds of the game, Flack put the cherry on top of the 14-11 victory with her sixth tally of the afternoon into an open net.
What's Up Next
Messiah will be back in action on Wednesday when they host the Dickinson Red Devils on the Lacrosse Turf at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday's game will be the frontend of a lacrosse doubleheader on the Lacrosse Turf, the men's lacrosse team will follow against Stockton at 7:00 p.m.
