Box Score
Grantham, PA - The Messiah College Falcons scored a goal in the game's first ten minutes for the fifth time this season in Saturday's 3-0 win over the visiting Elizabethtown Blue Jays in both team's conference opener.
Senior
Emily Hursh, sophomore
Heather Quirk, and freshman
Rachel Cox all scored for the Falcons in the win. Goalkeeper
Molly Gebrosky made two saves for the Falcons to record her fourth shutout of the season.
As has been the case in all of the Falcons' previous five wins, penalty corners proved crucial for the Falcons.
“It was great to score two of our three goals off corners today,” head coach
Brooke Good said following the team's 3-0 win. “We really focus on those situations in practice and try to work hard on both sides of the ball to really learn in those scenarios. We always want to convert corners into scoring chances, and defensively we want to be able to stop them.”
Messiah quickly gained advantage in gathering corners and capitalized early on the opportunities presented.
Junior
Brooke Sands sent a hard blast from the top of circle off the post just 3:27 into the game from a corner and less than two minutes later Sands received a pass off the corner, faked a shot and dished the ball to senior
Kelly Martin. Martin gathered the pass and sent a low hard shot toward the Jays' net. Classmate
Emily Hursh tipped the shot to the back of the net.
The Falcons continued their dominant offensive possession, playing much of the remainder of the first half in the Jays' defensive zone.
On yet another offensive zone push by the Falcons, Hursh again made her presence known. After gathering a loose ball amidst a gang of Blue Jay defenders, Hursh sent a quick pass across the goalmouth, finding the stick of freshman
Rachel Cox, who tapped in her first career goal.
The tally gave the Falcons a comfortable 2-0 lead which they took into the half.
The second half provided much of the same action between the Falcons and Blue Jays. Messiah held much of the offensive possession, controlling the flow of play.
The Jays did, however, find a little room in the Falcon defense near the midway point of the second half collecting possibly their best two scoring chances of the game.
On an Elizabethtown penalty corner, Casey Fletcher sent a pass to the top of the circle. The Jays' Kaylee Werner gathered the pass and blasted a shot towards the Falcon net, sending it just inches wide.
Minutes later the Jays' Jacki Hikes got behind the Falcons defense and sent a good shot on net that was saved by goalie
Molly Gebrosky.
The Falcons dodged the chances from the Jays and returned to their own offensive zone, again providing results on the scoreboard.
Another corner awarded to the Falcons provided yet another Falcon goal. Senior
Kelly Martin received a pass from
Celina Nissley and fired a shot toward the left side of the Jays' net, deflecting off the well-placed stick of
Heather Quirk and passed the Jays' keeper. The goal increased the Falcon lead to three, a mark that would stand for the remainder of the contest.
“We really executed well today,” Good said. “We used a lot of personnel, got a ton of people in the game. It is always good to execute well when that many people get in the game.”
With the win Messiah improves to 5-1 when facing ranked opponents this season. Overall, the Falcons improve to 6-1 and 1-0 in the conference, while the Blue Jays fall to 6-2 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
The Falcons held advantages over the Blue Jays in shots (13-6), shots on goal (8-2), and corners (9-6) in the game.
The Falcons return to action on Thursday, September 27 when they travel to face-off against Franklin and Marshall College. The opening whistle is set for 7 p.m.
