Early Push Helps 20th-Ranked Villa Julie To 19-13 Win Over Falcons
Messiah found solace in its competitiveness Saturday.

Stevenson, MD — With a daunting schedule serving as the start to the 2008 season, the Messiah College men’s lacrosse team came up short to yet another ranked opponent Saturday, dropping a 13-19 decision at 20th-rated Villa Julie College.

While the effort and execution far surpassed the team’s 6-19 loss at then 19th-ranked Haverford College on Wednesday, an early push from the host Mustangs was too much to overcome for Messiah (0-2).

“We played with much more passion and intensity today but made too many mistakes to win,” said Geof Weisenborn, Messiah head coach. “Villa Julie is a quality opponent and has a lot of weapons on offense. We unfortunately gave them the lead in the first quarter and had to play catch-up the remainder of the game.”

Villa Julie (2-0) blanked Messiah in the first quarter by a 3-0 count and scored six of the game’s first seven goals, leaving Weisenborn’s team in a hole too deep to fully recover from. Senior Nick Ricucci was again the Falcons’ main offensive threat, equaling his output of five goals against Haverford.

Messiah trailed by a 7-3 count at halftime, though the pace of the game favored the hosts: Villa Julie tallied 25 first-half shots on goal compared to the Falcons’ 16, eventually compiling a 67-38 difference in total shots on the game.

And while the Falcons would eventually pick up the pace offensively — the team scored eight of its 13 goals in the final 17:40 of the game — a lack of a true run foiled the squad’s efforts. Villa Julie was able to respond with scores following each of Messiah’s goals save for just one occurrence, when the Falcons put up back-to-back blasts at the 8:27 mark and 6:53 mark of the fourth quarter.

“We need to show significant improvement on the defensive end of the field to get our first win,” Weisenborn said.

Oberg finished with a season-high 23 saves, giving up 18 of the Mustangs’ 19 goals. Junior Greg Latimer came on in relief, spending just 43 seconds in goal while allowing one score.

Messiah will next take to its home field for the first time this season, as the team will host rival York College Wednesday afternoon. Game time is set for 4 p.m. at Anderson Field.