Messiah Puts Hammer Down Early, Cruises In Home Opener
Senior Amy Horst got things rolling with an improbable score Friday night, and then Messiah rolled.

Grantham, PA — Messiah senior forward Amy Horst was disgusted with herself.

With just under 12 minutes elapsed in the Falcons’ home opener against Roberts Wesleyan College, Horst pushed a ball past the Raiders’ left defensive back, stopped it just steps off the end line, and fired a looping pass across the face of the goal.

As soon as she hit it, Horst shrugged her shoulders. The cross was horribly offline.

Until it went in the goal.

The Lancaster, Pa. native had scored one of the more improbable goals in Shoemaker Field history, somehow making an effort from 20 yards out with virtually no angle to work with at all.

It would be a bad sign for Roberts Wesleyan.

Messiah (2-0) added scores in the 25th, 34th and 38th minutes to cruise to a 4-0 win, as head coach Scott Frey inserted all 25 players into the lineup for quality minutes in the second half of the Falcons’ home opener.

“I thought we played well tonight, and it was good to be back at home,” Frey said. “To be able to play our best soccer of the fall, it felt like things are beginning to come together the way we envision.”

And for Horst’s game-opening score?

“Let’s face it,” Frey said, “that may not have been what she was trying to do.”

Horst later admitted that her first goal of the year was indeed an attempted pass, as if that weren’t obvious by her shameful expression once she realized the ball actually curled into the upper net, far post.

That score was merely a product of Messiah’s dominant possession game throughout, as Roberts Wesleyan (0-1-1) was on the defensive from the outset. Frey’s club didn’t let up following the game-winning goal, either: Messiah would go on to outshoot the Raiders by a 21-1 count, keeping the ball on the offensive third of the field for nearly all 90 minutes.

“As unplanned as it may have been, that first goal took some of the early pressure off and allowed us to settle in,” Frey said. “I was pleased with how we responded after that. It was good to see us keep pressing and not relax. I thought our energy was good and our discipline was good.”

Senior and 2008 NSCAA/Adidas National Player of the Year Amanda Naeher tacked on Messiah’s second goal at the 25:25 mark, after the Roberts Wesleyan defense knocked a ball out to senior Katlyn Musser, who was positioned just outside the 18-yard box, center cut. Musser calmly slipped a through ball to Naeher, who found time and space to blast a low liner to the far post from 14 yards out.

Freshman Corrine Wulf then initiated Messiah’s next two scores, doing nifty work on the left flank twice in the span of four minutes. At the 34:44 mark, Wulf got past a Wesleyan defender and then slipped it past Raiders’ goalkeeper Amanda Prestigiacomo, allowing sophomore Olivia Scott to slide in and direct the ball into an empty net from six yards out. With 38:06 on the clock, Wulf again got past the defense and centered a pass to senior Emily Cope, who hit a spinning left-footed shot that curled inside the post — just out of reach of Prestigiacomo.

Messiah — ranked number one in the NSCAA/Adidas Pre-Season Top 25 Poll — would fire 15 shots in the first half of play.

“If there was one area to be less than pleased about, it would be the fact that we had a hard time finishing some opportunities we created,” Frey said. “We should have probably finished some chances, especially in the second half, but we were creating numerous chances, and that’s a good thing. We got behind them and were serving the ball quite a bit.”

Frey’s club would only tally six official shots in the second period, but the tone had been set: Roberts Wesleyan was credited with just one shot in the second half, executing both of the visitors’ corner kicks in the final 45 minutes of play.

Messiah now looks forward to a test with ninth-ranked Ithaca College tomorrow night, as the Bombers dealt nearby Gettysburg College a 1-0 defeat tonight. The Friday-Saturday slate marks the Falcons’ only double-weekend of the regular season schedule.

“It’s going to be a great contest for us,” Frey said of Ithaca, which reached the Elite Eight last season before being knocked out by Williams College. “They’re a good team with a good tradition. They’ve made the Elite Eight the last two years, and have a very talented group returning. We’ll be looking forward to the opportunity.”