The Swinging Bridge

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Sports

Messiah's men's soccer team is off to a tremendous start with a current record of 8-0-1. The team has had an impeccable season thus far with only one tie resulting from their game against Gettysburg College early in September.

"The guys entered this season so excited to be back and to be playing ball again with each other. There's a freshness that makes the game fun again this year," said Captain JD Binger. The Messiah men have a solid team this year with seven returning seniors, three of whom have been named captains for the 2008 season- Matt Dorsey, Brett Faro, and JD Binger.

The Falcons also have seven new first-year students this year. These seven new boys bring speed, agility and a strong defense to the Messiah line up. With first-year players Trevor Lee and Derek Black getting sufficient playing time and even consistently starting for the Falcons, they bring a lot to the team.

Adding to the great success of the team so far is sophomore Geoff Pezon who leads the team with 12 goals to date. He scored his first collegiate hat trick very early in the season when the Falcons traveled to Wheaton, IL to take on Wheaton College themselves and the University of Chicago.
"Pezon especially has changed the face of this season with his goal-scoring spree," says senior JD Binger. In one of the Falcons' most recent match-ups against Dickinson College, Pezon scored the one and only goal keeping the team alive in their no-loss winning streak.

The Falcons had a hard match-up on Wednesday September 24th when they took on Dickinson College. Dickinson was the first ranked team that the Falcons have played this season so far; Messiah went into the game ranked #2 while Dickinson was ranked #23. Dickinson put up a hard fight the whole game, but the Falcons prevailed. Messiah stood strong after many shots on goal from Dickinson, and Red Devils' defense was no match for the fire of Geoff Pezon. He put the Falcons on the board, which was all they needed to end the game with a score of 1-0.

Saturday, September 27th, the Falcons went up against Bethany College of West Virginia. The game started off slow in the wet conditions of Saturday night, but Geoff Pezon finally scored to put the Falcons on the board midway through the first half. After halftime and a 30 minute postponing of the game due to lightning, the Falcons came back firing from all directions, resulting in a final score of 6-0.

The Falcons have shown true strength throughout their whole line up. They have three more home games, with potentially their biggest challenges yet. The guys go up against Widener on October 4th, and then play two more home games against York and TCNJ during fall break.

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