Box Score
Gettysburg, PA – Messiah College scored two second half goals en route to a 3-1 in over Gettysburg College on Wednesday night, winning their third straight game to move to 4-0-1 on the season.
The Falcons managed to rally from a game-tying goal by the Bullets in the 56th minute of play to earn the road win, their second road win in as many games this season. On Wednesday, senior
Luke Helmuth punched in the game winner in the 71st minute of play. Less than five minutes later, senior
Mike Kovach put the Falcons in command with their third score of the night.
Though the final score was indicative of the Falcons' strong play, the game may have looked different if the Bullets had capitalized on a goal-scoring opportunity in the first moments of play. Just 80 seconds into the game, the Bullets' Kyle was twice turned away by sophomore keeper
Brandon West. The first shot by Franks resulted from a volley played into the box by the hosts. The shot was saved by West on a dive to his right, with the ball bouncing away and back to Franks. His second shot was saved by West near the right post, with the Messiah keeper crawling from his dive to block the second attempt.
The two saves would be half of West's total on the night, a demonstration of how important his early work was in helping the Falcons to the victory.
From that point forward, Messiah took control of the contest. In the 16th minute, the Falcons would take their first lead of the game off a goal by sophomore
Carter Robbins. His header off a corner kick from classmate
Brian Ramirez was his first score of the season. (If you missed
Carter Robbins' guest appearance on the “Messiah College Falcons' Hot Seat,”
see it here!)
Messiah would outshoot the Bullets eight to three in the first half, and would carry their 1-0 lead through the intermission.
In the second half, Gettysburg managed to knot the game at 1-1 off a fortunate bounce. A free kick was played into the Falcons' box before bounding off a defender and to the Bullets' Tyler Shaffer. His quick shot to the right side went past West to even the score, setting off a raucous celebration from the Gettysburg fans in attendance.
The score would remain tied until the Falcons regained the lead in dramatic fashion. With just under twenty minutes left to play, a corner by freshman
Bryant Myer was lofted high to the far post for senior
Luke Helmuth. Positioning himself inside of his defender, Helmuth put a header on the ball towards the left post and past Gettysburg keeper Jamie Hahn.
Helmuth's goal would prove to be the game winner, but classmate
Mike Kovach would provide separation just minutes later. Played a long ball from the midfield by freshman
Matt Kyne, Kovach raced through the defense on the right side to collect off the ball the bounce for the strike by Hahn.
The two goals by Helmuth and Kovach—two of six shots taken by Messiah in the second half—were the fifth and sixth second-half goals by the Falcons in their past three games.
In total, Messiah outshot Gettysburg 14 to six, collecting 11 corner kicks against seven for the Bullets.
With the loss, Gettysburg falls to 2-2 on the season. The Falcons, ranked No. 9 in the most recent NSCAA Top 25 Poll, improve to 4-0-1 and will look forward to a match-up with Catholic University on Saturday, September 15. The game with Catholic will also be on the road for Messiah, with game time scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
