HOBOKEN, N.J. – The No. 19 Messiah women's lacrosse team made it eight wins in a row with a 21-9 victory over the Stevens Ducks on Tuesday afternoon. A wild first half opened the game with the Falcons taking a 16-6 lead into the break. Rachel Delate handed out seven assists in the first half while Abby Howard scored five goals in the first 30 minutes of play.
 
In total, Delate finished with 10 points with seven assists and three goals while Howard led five multi-goal scorers with her five tallies.
 
Messiah will be back in action on Saturday morning when they travel to Alvernia to take on the Golden Wolves at 10:00 a.m. Messiah defeated the Golden Wolves earlier this season by a 21-7 final on Mar. 20.
 
Wild Start
All season the Falcons have started games hot, but Tuesday's meeting with Stevens might have been their fastest beginning to a game all year. Messiah netted a half dozen goals in the first three minutes of the game. Abby Howard scored the first tally as six different Falcons scored to begin the game.
 
The early run put Messiah in the driver's seat, where they would stay for the entirety of the contest. The next three minutes of play saw six more shots find the back of the cage with both Messiah and Stevens putting three on the board.
 
With Messiah leading 9-3 and less than six minutes of game off the clock, Rachel Delate and Amanda Wadsworth scored back-to-back tallies to make it an 11-3 Messiah lead.
 
Those first 14 goals of the game took less than seven and a half minutes off the clock. While the breakneck pace of the opening minutes slowed, Messiah eventually built their lead to double-digits at 14-4 with Abby Howard's fourth goal of the first half with nine minutes remaining before the break.
 
Messiah's lead grew to a16-4 before back-to-back Ducks' goals made it 16-6 at the half.
 
Staying Perfect
After the crazy opening half, Messiah and Stevens settled down after the break. The two sides combined for just eight goals in a much more even half that saw the Falcons outscore the Ducks 5-3 despite Stevens outshooting the Falcons 14-8 in the period.
 
Grace Gormley found Rachel Delate just over a minute into the second half for the first score of the period. After a Stevens' goal by Zoe Cook made it 17-7, the Falcons put two-straight on the board with scores from Gormley and Amanda Wadsworth.
 
Another Zoe Cook goal cut the Messiah lead to 11 at 19-8 before consecutive scores by Emma Lytle completed the Falcons' scoring at 21. Stevens tallied the final score of the contest, but Messiah earned the 21-9 victory for their eighth-straight double-digit victory to begin the season.
 
In the Box Score
As mentioned, Messiah had a number of standout individual performances on Tuesday with nine Falcons collecting at least one point. Rachel Delate finished the afternoon with 10 points on seven assists and three goals. Delate aided on seven goals in the first half before finishing the day one helper shy of the single game program record set by Christen Beaver exactly 22 years ago on Mar. 30, 1999.
 
Abby Howard led the goal scoring effort with five tallies on the afternoon with Amanda Wadsworth, Grace Gormley, Hope Flack, and Emma Lytle each netting multiple goal performances as well.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons will be back in action on Saturday morning when they travel to Reading to take on the Alvernia Golden Wolves at 10:00 a.m. The Falcons and Golden Wolves played just a few weeks ago on Mar. 20 in Grantham with the Falcons winning by a 21-7 victory.