CHESTER, PA - The Messiah Men's Lacrosse team fell to the Widener Pride late on Tuesday night, ending their season in the MAC Commonwealth Play-In Game. The Pride won 12-10 to advance into the Semifinals later this week. Nathan Branson and RJ Mellor led the team with three goals each on the night.

First Half
Messiah held a 2-1 lead after one quarter of play, with goals coming from Branson and Stone. Widener scored three straight goals to take a 4-2 lead before Messiah answered with two goals to even the score at 4-4. Both of those goals came courtesy of Shaw. The teams would trade goals with Widener taking the slight edge into halftime 6-5. Branson tacked on the fifth goal of the game for the Falcons.

Second Half
Messiah evened up the score with an RJ Mellor less than two minutes into the third quarter. Widener would tack on three additional goals in the quarter while Messiah added one via Owen Joyce on a man-up opportunity. Widener led 9-7 headed into the final quarter of play. Widener extended the lead to three with a goal from Connor Heisman to make it 10-7. Two RJ Mellor goals later and Messiah was down one with over seven minutes remaining. It would remain scoreless for a three minute stretch before Widener scored twice to take a 12-9 lead with two and half minutes to go. A man-up goal from Branson cut the deficit to two but it wasn't enough.

Widener won the game 12-10 and will advance to face York College on Thursday, May 5 at 5:00 PM.

Stats
Branson and Mellor each had three goals on the night while Shaw had two. Stone and Joyce added goals on the night as well. Ricky Pokrivka led the team in ground balls with eight and went 9/17 on face offs. Widener held the slight edge on shots (44-41) and ground balls (28-26). Messiah converted 2/8 extra man opportunities while Widener went 0/6 on the night. Messiah committed 21 turnovers to Widener's 13 as well. 

Going Forward
The 2022 spring season is over for Messiah, as Men's Lacrosse finished with an 8-10 overall mark in the first season under new head coach Dan Carson. Owen Joyce led the team in goals on the year with 37, including his goal tonight.