Grantham, PA, (November 10, 2006) – The two-time defending national champions, Messiah College, shook off its only loss of the season to defeat DeSales University, 2-0, in the opening round of the 2006 NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Tournament.

 

        The Bulldogs (13-5-3 overall) season comes to an end after they earned its second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Freedom Conference Championship last week.  The Falcons (17-1-1 overall) advance to the second round where they await the winner of Arcadia/Franklin & Marshall on Saturday night at 6:00 pm.

 

        DeSales played extremely well in the loss as the game was a scoreless tie at the half.  DSU had a few chances in the first half, but was never able to officially record a shot.  Messiah had 13 shots in the opening half, five of which were on goal but all saved by junior goalkeeper Rusty Riedmiller (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg).

 

        The second half was controlled by the Falcons as they kept knocking on the door and finally broke thru for the game’s first goal at 59:49 when Josh Sanders took control of a loose ball off a corner kick that was knocked out to the top of the box.  Sanders hit a low skipping shot to the near post that just beat Riedmiller and found the back of the net.

 

        The exclamation point was added about 12 minutes later when Ryan Edwards made a brilliant move inside the box, nearly dribbling past the end line before slipping a pass to a wide open Brett Faro who made it 2-0 on the scoreboard.

 

        Messiah out-shot DeSales, 28-0, and held a 22-0 edge in corner kicks.  Riedmiller was sensational in between the pipes for the Bulldogs, making 11 saves, including several spectacular ones to keep DSU in the game.