his past Saturday, April 13, the Elizabethtown College men’s lacrosse team faced rival Messiah College in a Commonwealth Conference match in Grantham, falling 7-6 in overtime. The men’s team is currently 7-4 and 2-3 in conference play. Messiah has a similar record of 4-6 and 2-2 in conference play. The Blue Jays fought hard, but in the end the Falcons’ Ryan Mayer scored 21 seconds into the first overtime period to give Messiah the win.

First-year Dillon O’Dell scored the first goal for the Blue Jays, his 13th of the season. Messiah scored just six minutes later on a man-up goal by Andrew Harris. Those two goals were the only scores in the first quarter. The second quarter was just as low on goals — again only one from each team was scored.  Messiah’s goal came early in the second quarter, and it looked like the Falcons would carry a 2-1 lead to halftime. However, senior Corey Boushell found the net with only 21 seconds left in the half to tie the score up 2-2. Tight defenses on both sides kept the score low in the first half. Sophomore goalie Chris Wenger had five saves, while Messiah’s Jon Weimer had nine saves.

Messiah was first on the board after the half as Tyler Goglio picked up his second goal of the game. Junior Craig Hunsberger netted in the sole goal of the third quarter for the Blue Jays at the 9:05 mark. Heading into the final quarter of the game, the Blue Jays were down 4-3. O’Dell tallied a goal again, and first-year Steve Nutting’s first goal of the night put Etown up 5-4. Messiah answered with two goals of their own, but Boushell pulled through for the Jays. He netted in his second goal of the game with a pass from first-year Jimmy Waters with 3:56 to play to tie up the game.

Although Etown fell in overtime, the Blue Jays were the statistical leaders on the night. They lead in groundballs and shots and had fewer turnovers.  Despite the Jays outshooting the Falcons on goal 23-14, Messiah’s 17 saves were the key in preventing Etown from taking the win. The Blue Jays won 12 out of 17 faceoffs but one key faceoff ultimately hurt the Jays. One of the Falcons’ faceoff wins came at the start of overtime, which then ended in a Falcon goal.

Boushell said of the game, “We obviously have a big rivalry with Messiah so we were definitely ready to play. We always want to beat Messiah.” The Messiah/Etown rivalry is one that has been popular with the school for a long time. Everyone prepares differently for these games, and every athlete tries a little harder in order to prevail over the Falcons. The Blue Jays had a tough fight, but in the end just could not come through. Boushell said, “Individually, I prepared just like every other game – worked hard in practice so I’m ready for the game.” Athletes need to make sure that they are taking practices seriously and playing in practices like they would in games.

This loss moved the Blue Jays into a fifth place tie in the Commonwealth Conference standings with Lycoming College, who the Jays defeated earlier this season. The Blue Jays have another important game next Saturday, April 20 against Albright College at 1 p.m.