WESTMINSTER, Md. – The Messiah men's lacrosse team held a 5-4 lead at the half of their season opener against the McDaniel Green Terror on Wednesday afternoon before getting outscored 8-3 after the break to drop the season opener 12-8.
 
Nathan Branson led the offense with three goals on the game. He scored all three tallies in the second quarter as the Falcons shutout the Green Terror in the period to take a halftime advantage.Messiah out-shot the Green Terror in the contest, taking 39 shots and putting 22 attempts on frame against 35 shots (19 on target) for McDaniel.
 
Messiah will be back in action on Saturday when they travel to Lancaster to take on the No. 9 Franklin & Marshall Diplomats at 1:00 p.m.

First Half, Messiah Leads 5-4
McDaniel got on the board first thanks to a goal from Dom Calderoni in the first four minutes of play. Messiah answered immediately with a Seth Libby goal less than a minute later to tie the game at one-all. Sam Stone gave the Falcons a 2-1 advantage later in the quarter which wasn't held for long before the Green Terror scored three goals to take a 4-2 lead after the first quarter.

Nathan Branson started off the second quarter with his first goal of the day and would later tack on his second with a little under seven minutes remaining in the half to tie the game at four. Branson wasn't done, adding his third goal of the afternoon with over two minutes remaining to give the Falcons a 5-4 lead into halftime.

Final, McDaniel Wins 12-8
Aaron Shaw scored at the beginning of the third quarter to increase the lead to 6-4 before McDaniel answered with three goals to take a 7-6 lead and would never lose the lead again. In the fourth quarter, the Green Terror rattled off five goals in the quarter while Messiah only added two courtesy of another Aaron Shaw and Sam Stone goal.

The Falcons would drop the opener 12-8 to bring their record to 0-1.

Stats
The Falcons would out shoot the Green Terror 39-35 on the day, while also having three more shots on goal (22-19). Each team won 11 face-offs while Messiah had four more ground balls (21-17).

Nathan Branson scored three goals while Aaron Shaw and Sam Stone each added two. Seth Libby tacked on the additional goal for the Falcons. Owen Joyce had a hand in four of those goals, tallying four assists which was a team high. Shaw led the team in shots with 12 while Christian Santangini had seven shots on the day.

Ricky Pokrivka led the team with seven ground balls while Carter Cigrang led the team in caused turnovers with three.

Up Next
The loss drops Messiah's record to 0-1. Messiah will be on the road on Saturday when they travel to Lancaster to take on the No. 9 Franklin & Marshall Diplomats at 1:00 p.m.