READING, Pa. – The Albright men's soccer team was defeated by No. 7 ranked Messiah 3-1 on Tuesday night at Shirk Stadium in MAC Commonwealth play.
With the loss, the Lions fall to 3-7-1 overall on the season and 0-2 in MAC Commonwealth play. Meanwhile, the nationally-ranked Falcons improve to 8-0-2 on the season and 2-0 in conference action.
The Falcons controlled play early as they recorded four shots in the first 10 minutes of the game. Messiah continued to pepper the Lions net with shots throughout the first half, but the Lions defense and sophomore goalkeeper
Nick Barton stood tall to keep the game scoreless. The Falcons ripped 13 shots on the Lions net in the first half and were unable to cash in as the game remained 0-0 into halftime.
Messiah nearly broke the scoreless tie in the first minute of the second half with two excellent chances on the net. The first shot was saved by Barton and bounced right to another Falcon, who sent the ball right off the crossbar and kept the game scoreless. However, the Falcons finally broke through with a goal in the 61st minute to go up 1-0. Messiah quickly added to its lead two minutes later in the 63rd minute off a header from Stefan Leitzel in front to make it 2-0. The Falcons capped their strong second half with a third and final goal in the 75th minute after a cross made it through traffic to Dylan Englehart. Albright recorded its first shot in the 76th minute when senior
Yaniv Gonyoe sent a shot left of the net. The Lions then cashed in on an own goal from the Falcons to cut the lead down to 3-1 in the 80th minute. Senior
Alexander MacDonald headed a ball following a corner kick that was accidentally kicked in the Messiah net by one of the Falcons. The Lions had one last chance to cut in the deficit further in the final minute of regulation, but senior
Nicholas Garofalo had his shot saved.
The Falcons held a sizable 31-3 advantage in shots and a 14-2 edge in shots on goal. Messiah also held a slight 6-3 edge in corner kicks. Barton made a career-high 11 saves in the full 90 minutes of action, while Falcon goalkeeper Jared Pavlovich made two saves to earn the win.
Albright will return to action on Saturday, October 9th as they will travel to face Hood at 4 p.m. in MAC Commonwealth play.
