Messiah Men's Soccer Spring and Fall Schedules Released
Posted: 2/8/2008
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Grantham, PA -- The Messiah Men's Soccer program has released both their 2008 spring non-traditional schedule and their 2008 fall schedule. The Falcons are coming off another successful season that saw them attend their fourth NCAA Final Four in a row. The 2008 squad is looking forward to next season and will use the non-traditional season as a spring board for the fall. All-American Senior JD Binger will be one of six starters back from last year's squad, as they look to maintain the dynamic play many have come to expect. The program has recently named their captains for 2008: senior defender JD Binger (Belvidere, IL), senior winger Matt Dorsey (New Freedom, PA), and junior midfielder Brett Faro (N. Chili, NY).

This spring the Falcons will be practicing the month of April with games scheduled at the end of the month. Their first match will be on Saturday, April 19th against the Alumni on Shoemaker Field with the game time set for 4:00 pm. Messiah's second play date of the spring season will be against NCAA Division I power University of Maryland and NCAA Division I Ivy League Penn University. The games will be played on Saturday, April 26th at College Park, MD in the evening with times to be determined.

Messiah's fall schedule will open with the Falcons traveling to Chicago, IL to participate in a two game classic at Wheaton College. The Falcons will open their season against UAA's The University of Chicago on Friday and then match up against the hosts on Saturday. The Falcons defeated Wheaton in the 2006 NCAA National Championship match 3-0 and then defeated the Thunder again in 2007 1-0 on Shoemaker Field in front of a raucous Homecoming crowd of over 5,000.

The next six matches will be all non-conference and contain Freedom Conference Champion and NCAA qualifier DeSales University, NJAC power Kean University and Centennial Conference member and NCAA qualifier Dickinson University. The Falcons faced DeSales last year in the regular season as well as in the 2006 NCAA Tournament having won 3-0 and 2-0 respectively, but this time it will be on the Bulldogs turf. Kean is traveling to Grantham in response to the Falcons 2006 trip to New Jersey where Messiah squeaked out a 2-1 overtime victory. It has been four years since the Falcons tangled with Dickinson University as they last played in 2004 when Messiah traveled down the road to Carlisle to hand the hosts a 5-1 defeat.

After having been off the Messiah schedule since 2002 Bethany College, who garnered a bid to the ECAC South Region Tournament last season, will be coming to Shoemaker Field. The last time the Bison were at Messiah was in 2001 when they handed the Falcons their only regular season loss of the year 2-0. Immediately after playing conference foe Widener University, Messiah will face of one of the most talented squads in the country--York College. The Spartans have risen up the ranks as one of the top Division III soccer programs in the nation as they have been to the NCAA Elite 8 the last two years in a row. However, it was last year's 2-1 victory over the Falcons that will add a little more spice to an already highly competitive contest.

The next two matches will be against teams that took the Falcons into overtime in 2007--TCNJ and LVC. The College of New Jersey hosted Messiah last year and it took a sudden victory goal from Nick Thompson to defeat the Lions 2-1 in OT. The last time TCNJ visited Shoemaker Field it was the 2005 NCAA Sectional Championship when the Falcons scored three second half goals to win 3-0 and advance to the Final Four. In 2007 the Falcons only gave up 8 goals, but they allowed two goals to Commonwealth Conference rival Lebanon Valley College in a 3-2 overtime contest. LVC started out last season strong winning 6 out of their first 8 games and look to build on that success.

The Falcons will host Lycoming College on Homecoming Weekend before they travel to Grove City College where the Falcons have not played since 2003. The next three games will be against Commonwealth opponents with the first being against newcomer Arcadia University. The Knights have traveled to Grantham a number of times over the years with the last encounter a 2006 NCAA 2nd Round contest where the Falcons won 3-0. However, this will be the first time in program history that Messiah will travel to Glenside, PA as this is the first season that Arcadia is a member of the Commonwealth Conference.

The final two regular season contests will be against Albright College, who took the Falcons into overtime in 2007, and rival Elizabethtown College. The regular season contest between Messiah and Etown is one of the most celebrated in NCAA Division III as the proximity of the schools (30 miles) allows for a large fan base to travel and support their respected team. This year's match will be held in Grantham, PA on Shoemaker Field for the 46th meeting between the Falcons the Blue Jays with Messiah holding the all-time edge 25-2-17.

The regular season will be followed by the Commonwealth Conference playoffs and the NCAA Division III playoffs.

The full schedule is available here.