READING, Pa. – The Albright men's lacrosse team was unable to outlast Messiah as they fell 19-16 in the MAC Commonwealth opener at Shirk Stadium on Wednesday.
 
With the loss, the Lions drop to 4-5 overall and open up conference action 0-1. Meanwhile, the Falcons improve to 5-4 and begin MAC Commonwealth play 1-0.
 
First-year Jack Burke paced the Lions offense with seven points behind a season-high six goals and one assist. Senior Cole Genneken followed with two goals and three assists for five points. Senior Shane Early tallied a hat trick and one assist for four points. Senior Alex McKendry added four points as well behind one goal and three assists.
 
Messiah opened up the scoring with a goal at the 11:44-mark of the first quarter. Sophomore Jon Alvarez got Albright on the board behind a feed from Early to tie the game at one. The teams traded goals until Burke notched two-straight for Albright to give them a 3-2 lead at the 7:12-mark. Messiah used a 2-1 advantage to close out the opening frame and tie the game at four.
 
The Falcons continued their run to open up the second quarter with a goal just 16 second into play to take a 5-4 lead. Senior Jacob Cunningham found the back of the net less than a minute later to tie the game up once again. Sophomore Tyler Richard put Albright back in front behind a feed from McKendry at the 10:34-mark. Messiah responded with back-to-back scores to take a 7-6 lead with 8:32 remaining in the half. Albright began to control the pace with three-straight from McKendry, Genneken, and Burke to grasp a 9-7 advantage at the 2:34-mark. The Falcons snapped the run with the closing goal of the half to get within one at 9-8 entering the break.
 
Early notched back-to-back scores out of the half as the Lions claimed their largest lead of the game at 11-8. However, the Falcons answered with three unanswered goals to keep within reach and tie the game 11. The two teams traded goals to close out the game and keep the game equalized at 12 entering the final frame.
 
Messiah controlled the pace in the fourth quarter, netting six-straight goals throughout the nine minutes of action to take the largest lead of either team at 18-12. Genneken finally snapped the run and gave the Lions the spark they needed with an unassisted goal at the 4:16-mark. Burke followed less than a minute later with an unassisted goal to get the Lions within four. The Falcons added to their lead with 2:17 remaining to hold onto a 19-14 advantage. Albright attempted to chip away at their deficit with two more scores from Burke and Early, but their efforts were too late as Messiah walked away with the 19-16 MAC Commonwealth victory.
 
Messiah held a 45-38 shot advantage and a 32-22 shot on goal advantage over Albright. The Falcons also held a slight 44-42 ground ball advantage and won the battle for faceoffs 20-17.  Junior goalkeeper Liam Ferry receives the loss for the Lions with five saves in 30 minutes of action. First-year Ethan Hendershot added eight saves in net in the first 30 minute of play. Aidan Hickey earns the win for the Falcons with six saves in the full amount of action.
 
Albright will continue MAC Commonwealth action on Saturday at 1 p.m. as they host Lebanon Valley at Shirk Stadium.