CARLISLE, Pa. - The No. 15 Messiah women's soccer team handed the No. 19 Dickinson Red Devils their first loss of the season by a 3-0 final on Wednesday night. Rachael Tirjan, Emma Herrmann, and Brianna Seip tallied for the Falcons as Messiah moves to 5-2-1 on the season.
 
With the loss, Dickinson suffers their first defeat of the year and falls to 7-1-0 on the season.
 
Falcons on the Board First
After Lydia Watkins saved the first shot of the contest from the Red Devils in the seventh minute, the Falcons were on the attack looking for a goal. In the 16th minute, Shelby Burger pulled the trigger from downtown and sent a left-footed shot toward the goal mouth from well outside the box. Her attempt skipped on a hop to the Dickinson keeper. The shot was struck with enough pace that the keeper couldn't corral the rebound and Brianna Seip and her defender crashed toward the ball on the end line. Seip got to the ball first after the keeper and the defender ran into each other. Her pass went right to Rachael Tirjan in the middle of the box and the Falcons' leading scorer finished into the vacated net.
 
The goal was Tirjan's team-leading seventh of the season and gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
 
Messiah nearly doubled the lead in the 24th minute when Seip hit the crossbar, but the Red Devils were able to avoid the score for the time being.
 
Penalty Kick Doubles Lead
Just over 10 minutes after Seip hit the woodwork, Emma Herrmann got into the box thanks to a through ball from Shelby Burger. As Herrmann went to turn toward the middle of the field, she was pushed down from behind and the Falcons were awarded a penalty kick.
 
Herrmann stepped up to the spot and rolled in the penalty for her second career goal and a 2-0 Messiah lead as the match went to half time.
 
Finishing Touches
Despite both teams getting opportunities in the second half (6-6 in shots), the score remained 2-0 in the Falcons' favor until the 79th minute when Messiah added an insurance goal off the foot of Brianna Seip.
 
On a bit of a counter attack, Jessie Fisher played the initial through ball to Rachael Tirjan at the top of the box. Tirjan, the ball, and the Dickinson keeper converged at more or less the same time at the top of the box. The ball squirted to Brianna Seip, waiting to the right of the commotion. Seip controlled possession and netted her first goal of the season to give Messiah a 3-0 lead in the final minutes.
 
The Falcons went on to win by that 3-0 margin to improve to 5-2-1 on the season. Messiah outshot the Red Devils 12-7 in the match, earning a 6-1 advantage in the opening half.
 
What's Up Next
The Falcons now move into the MAC Commonwealth section of their schedule. Messiah will travel to York and take on the Spartans at 12:00 p.m. in their first conference game of the season and their first-ever conference game against York. The Spartans joined the MAC Commonwealth prior to this season.