GRANTHAM, PA - The Messiah men's lacrosse team picked up their second conference win of the season with a 13-9 win over the Alvernia Golden Wolves. Owen Joyce scored five goals with three assists and three ground balls in a dominant effort on the night.

The Falcons will host Widener on April 9, at 1:00 PM in Grantham, Pa.

First Half
Messiah got on the board first with back to back goals from RJ Mellor and Owen Joyce to take an early 2-0 lead in the game. Alvernia answered with a goal to cut the lead in half with seven and a half minutes to go in the quarter. The Falcons would then score five straight goals throughout the rest of the first quarter increasing the lead to 7-1 after the first quarter. Stone, Libby, Shaw, Joyce and Mellor tacked on those five straight goals for Messiah to take a commanding lead. 

The Golden Wolves struck first in the second quarter but Messiah would answer with three more goals courtesy of Joyce, Santangini and N. Jaloszynski to make the score 10-2 with just over five to play in the half. The teams would trade goals to make the score 11-3 at the break, thanks to a buzzer beating goal from Owen Joyce with 0.4 seconds remaining in the half. It was Joyce's fourth goal at the time.

Second Half
The third quarter would only see two goals scored, both from the Golden Wolves to cut the deficit to 11-5. Dane Sabarese made six saves for Alvernia in goal in the third quarter, giving the Golden Wolves some life heading into the fourth quarter. Alvernia continued to gain momentum with a man-up goal to make the game 11-6 with 13 minutes to go in the game. Joyce would add his fifth goal on the game to increase the lead back to six. With just under eight minutes remaining, Libby added his second goal of the day for the Falcons before Alvernia answered with two quick goals to cut the Falcon lead to five at 13-8 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Alvernia would tack on another goal to make it 13-9 but Messiah would hold on to win the game 13-9.

Stats
Messiah out-shot Alvernia 42-31 and had more ground balls 43-29. Messiah also won five more face-offs than Alvernia (15-10).

Owen Joyce led the Falcons with five goals and also added three assists and three ground balls. Seth Libby and RJ Mellor each had two goals on the night. Frank Honey led the team in ground balls with six. Kyle Anderson chipped in with five ground balls at the game. Aiden Hickey tallied seven saves on the night. Corum McCuller led the team with three caused turnovers.


Next
The win brings their overall record to 6-5 and their conference record to 2-0. The Falcons will host the Widener University Pride on April 9, at 1:00 PM. That game will be played in Grantham, Pa.