Messiah Handles Elizabethtown 3-0
Posted: 3/12/2008
More Men's Soccer news

Elizabethtown, PA -- The Messiah Men's Soccer team participated in one of the most highly anticipated matches on Monday when they traveled to Elizabethtown for their regular season rivalry. The match was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday but was moved to Monday due to weather related field conditions. In the end it didn't matter to the Falcons who left Ira R. Herr field with a 3-0 victory and claimed the number one seed in the Commonwealth Conference Tournament. Junior Matt Dorsey (New Freedom, PA) claimed the game winner when he settled a deflected cross from Eric Frey (Glen Arm, MD). Dorsey had a great first touch past his defender and beat the keeper far post for his third goal of the year.

Messiah has not dropped a match at Elizabethtown's field for the last 12 years as the last Blue Jays victory came back in 1994. However, Etown has won two out of the last three Commonwealth Championships and defeated the Falcons on their home turf to do it. The victory moves Messiah's record to 16-2 and 5-0 in the Commonwealth while the loss drops Elizabethtown to 13-5 and 3-2 in the conference. As a result Messiah will be the top seed and host Albright on Wednesday while the Blue Jays drop to the third seed and will have to travel to Lycoming.

The game started off with Elizabethown controlling the match both offensively and defensively with high pressure and dangerous restarts. For the first twenty minutes it was difficult for the Falcons to sustain much of a passing game and except for a few breakaways they were unable to be dangerous. The game might have had a different outcome if in the 18th minute Brian Raveling had finished an excellent scoring opportunity. A ball was played to Raveling far post and he had a free header that went directly to Messiah's netminder Jared Clugston (Red Hill, PA).

The last twenty five minutes was more evenly played with the Falcons possibly getting better looks one being when Patrick Lenehan (Highland, IN) was played through by Josh Mull (Lewisberry, PA). The senior midfielder was in one on one with Blue Jay keeper Jeff Mullen who made an excellent save by simply standing Lenehan up.

When Matt Dorsey scored with less than two minutes remaining it looked as if Messiah would hold a 1-0 lead at halftime. However, with seconds remaining on the clock Clugston punted a ball to Sean Cunningham (Mullica Hill, NJ) who won the head ball, ran onto it, and crossed it to the box. Junior Mike Rinker (Hatfield, PA) had an excellent touch to flick it over his defender and struck the ball before Mullen could make the save. The clock showed 2.3 seconds left in the half and Messiah found themselves with a 2-0 advantage.

The second half started just as the first half ended--with Messiah finding the back of the net. Less than two minutes into the half Brett Faro (N. Chili, NY) slipped in forward Nick Thompson (Hudson, OH) who shot the ball into a sprawling Jeff Mullen. The ball popped out to Lenehan who did an brilliant job of scooping the ball over a sliding defender, touching it to his left foot, and crushing a ball into the upper 90 far post to make it 3-0. The goal was Patrick Lenehan's twelfth of the year as the senior forward leads the team in goals, assists, and points.

The remainder of the game was played primarily in the midfield with both teams only getting a couple of good looks at the goal. The Falcons had the statistical advantage in shots 15-5 and corners 5-1. Messiah's Clugston tallied Messiah's 12th shutout of the year off 3 saves while Blue Jay keeper Jeff Mullen made 5 saves in the match.

The Falcons are set to host the Commonwealth Conference semi-finals at Shoemaker Field on Wednesday, Oct. 31st at 7:00pm against Albright College. Albright claimed the fourth and final seed of the playoffs after defeating Widener University 1-0 on Saturday night. The Lions are 8-8-2 overall and finished 2-3 in the conference.

The Women's Soccer team at Messiah is having a remarkable season as they are currently sitting on a perfect record of 17-0. They will be hosting Lebanon Valley College on Tuesday at 7:00pm on Shoemaker Field for the Commonwealth semi finals.