Men's Lacrosse Ends Season

The men's lacrosse team suffered two upsetting losses this past week. The first loss was to the Falcon's all time rival-the Blue Jays of Elizabethtown. During this match-up, the Falcons were first to score-Brent Stewart assisted by J.J. Miller. But not even a minute after Messiah scored, the Blue Jays scored their first goal, putting the game at a 1-1 tie mid-way through the first quarter. Little did anyone in the crowd know that it was going to take the Falcons until almost the end of the third quarter to even score again. Once the Blue Jays scored their first goal it seemed so effortless to them-they scored eight more goals before the Falcons were able to score again, from an unassisted ball from Phil Wendt. Phil's goal with 4:49 seconds remaining in the third was the last goal of the quarter. The Falcons had 15 minutes to come back from an 8-2 deficit, but unfortunately E-town came out in the fourth quarter still firing from all cylinders. The Blue Jays were able to put away four more goals in the fourth giving them a win with a score of 12-2.

The second upsetting loss the Falcons received was at the hands of DeSales University. The Falcons went into this game needing a win to advance to the MAC play-offs. Unfortunately, it just was not going to happen. The first goal of the game came from the Falcons, just under 13 minutes in the first quarter, from senior Matt Ayre. But it didn't take the Bulldogs of DeSales to retaliate-just nine seconds after the first goal from Messiah, the Bulldogs scored, tying it up. However, it didn't take Messiah long to score again-with 11:37 left in the first quarter the Falcons scored their second goal of the game, from J.J. Miller, taking a 2-1 lead. Not even a minute after the Falcons' second goal an unassisted goal came from James Baden, allowing the Falcons to have a 3-1 lead over the Bulldogs. DeSales scored again before the first quarter ended, and the first quarter ended with a score of 3-2 in favor of Messiah. Starting the second quarter, Andy Cureton scored off a ball from Jeff Ziegler, giving the Falcons a 4-2 lead. The second quarter lagged on from the 12:48 mark when Messiah scored until the 4:30 mark when DeSales came out firing. With 4:30 left in the second quarter DeSales was able to score 4 goals, giving them a 6-4 lead at the half. Only one goal was produced during the third quarter and it was from DeSales, making the score 7-4. Then in the fourth quarter-just 30 seconds in-DeSales scored again. But at the 5:01 mark in the fourth the Falcons decided to give it all they had, and Jeff Ziegler scored an unassisted goal, closing the deficit to 8-5. Again at 3:37 Jeff Ziegler scored, assisted by Brent Stewart, again closing that gap to 8-6. And the Falcons weren't done yet-at the 2:29 mark J.J. Miller scored off a ball from Jeff Ziegler. Thirty-three seconds later, Jeff Ziegler scored a goal (assisted by Grant Leighty) to tie the game at 8-8 with 2:03 left. However, DeSales scored with only 22 seconds left in the game, and the Falcons just couldn't muster up another goal. The game ended with DeSales winning 9-8, ending the Falcons' season. Messiah ends with an overall record of 7-7 and a record of 5-5 in the Conference. The team says goodbye to 6 seniors now with the conclusion of their season-Greg Latimer, Hamilton Anderson, Andy Cureton, Matt Ayre, Tyler Lee, and Jeff Ziegler.