Falcons Control Possession, Scoreboard In 5-1 Win Over Eastern
Strong play from junior Lauren Tennis and Messiah's midfield helped the Falcons to a 24-8 advantage in shots against Eastern Wednesday.
By Cody Swartz, GoMessiah.com reporter
Grantham, PA — The weather may not have been made for field hockey Wednesday afternoon, but it didn’t seem to affect the Messiah Falcons, as they outplayed Eastern University at Anderson Field. The Falcons controlled the ball as well as the outcome for 70 minutes through the rain and the wind for a 5-1 win.
“This was a good game for our girls, and I was proud of the way they played,” said Jan Trapp, Messiah head coach.
Messiah (3-0) got on the board early, as senior Jenna Max nailed a pass from junior Kourtney Ehly less than three minutes into the game, giving the Falcons a 1-0 edge against a team they swept by 3-1 and 3-0 scores last season.
“It's always important to get that quick early lead,” Trapp said. “It gives the team a lift, and helps to establish our dominance early on in the game.”
Ranked fourth in the latest Kookaburra/NFHCA Top 20 Poll, Messiah showed why they will be a tough opponent this season, as the team controlled the ball and kept the momentum in their favor, eventually recording a 24-8 advantage in total shots. Senior Katie Love scored two unassisted goals in a span of six and a half minutes to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead just midway through the first half, first taking a feed from junior Lauren Tennis with 12:09 elapsed and then pulling out Eastern junior goalkeeper Laura Ressler for an unassisted tally six and a half minutes later.
The Eagles threatened to score moments before halftime, but a strong defensive effort by the Falcons — particularly senior goalkeeper Ashley Mowery — kept the Eagles off the board heading into the half. Mowery, a starter at goalie since her freshman year, played an outstanding game in goal for the Falcons, finishing with five saves in a full 70 minutes of work.
“Our girls really dominated the first half of the game, and it was great to go into half with that lead,” said Trapp.
Eastern (2-2) jumped on the board in the second half off a goal from senior All-American Lindsay Moyer, cutting the Falcons’ lead to just a 3-1 advantage. The Falcons never panicked, however, and Trapp stated later, “The entire team did a nice job in the second half of playing together.”
A pair of goals from junior All-American Julie Barton midway through the second half completed the scoring for the day, and the Messiah defense held on the rest of the way against a barrage of Eastern penalty corners for a commanding 5-1 win.
“It was great to allow the subs an opportunity to play later in the game,” Trapp said. “We have eight freshmen able to play for us, and it takes awhile to learn to play the way we do, but the only way they can learn is by playing.”
Perhaps the only drawback to Messiah’s performance came in the form of those penalty corners allowed in the second half — 12 in all — sufficing for half of the Falcons’ 24 allowed corners in the first three games of the year.
Trapp took an optimist’s view of that statistic, however.
“We gave up a whole lot of penalty corners in the second half, but I think it's a testament to our backups that we were able to stop all but one of them,” she said.
With the victory, Messiah improved to a perfect 3-0 for the season, setting up another highly-anticipated match on Saturday in New Jersey: Messiah will travel to fifth-ranked Rowan University (2-1), a team that took Messiah to double overtime last year before a 2-1 Falcons win in a thrilling NCAA Regional Championship.
It might be difficult for most coaches to take the season one game at a time — especially when a team seems to have the talent to make a run at an NCAA Division III title — but not for Trapp.
“Yes, we're always looking for the end goal, but we need to remind ourselves to take the schedule one game at a time,” she said. “Last year's matchup was probably the greatest game ever played at our Anderson Field, and it's going to be another war this year. They're a fine team, they have a whole lot of team speed, they're as aggressive as we are, and we expect a lot of pressure from them.”
