BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (September 18, 2010) – In 11 career meetings prior to today the DeSales University men's soccer team had scored one goal on Messiah College and that came in 1970. Today the Bulldogs had a 1-0 lead and scored twice but it was not enough as the defending national champion Falcons scored with 4:58 left in the second half, breaking a tie at two for a 3-2 win.

The Bulldogs (5-2 overall) played tremendously, continually getting chances on Messiah (5-1 overall) and repeatedly thwarting the Falcons scoring opportunities with some gorgeous goalkeeper saves and some nifty defensive clears. The shots were nearly even in the first half, 5-4 edge to MC, before the Falcons turned up the dial in the second half and out-shot the DSU, 16-5.

Junior Derek Long (Wernersville, PA/Conrad Weiser) was brilliant up top all game, giving Messiah, winners of seven national championships since 2000, fits on the defensive end the entire game. He broke free on a fantastic over the top pass from senior Aaron Gildner (Slatington, PA/Parkland) 3:34 into the game and buried a line drive just over the keeper's head to give DSU a 1-0 lead in the game.

The lead lasted for just over 10 minutes before the Falcons countered when Nick Thompson took a pass, dodged a Bulldog defender creating a one-on-one with the keeper and pushed a shot past the keeper's diving right-hand for his third goal of the year.

That score stood into the break as both teams took a 15-minute break.

In the second half Messiah struck first as Drew Frey scored his first marker of the year taking a centering pass from Thompson in the middle of the box about 10 yards out and firing a shot thru the DeSales defense and into the nylon at the 58:09 mark.

DeSales refused to concede the game however and turned up the offensive pressure. In the 75th minute sophomore Tyler Nolan (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) took a long throw-in just inside the right corner flag and the ball caromed off the Falcons' keeper's hand to the back post where Long was waiting to knock it in thru a cluster of players tying the game at two.

Back and forth the action went for the next 10+ plus minutes before Messiah was able to score the game-winner as Thompson and Frey reversed roles. Frey had a long throw-in deep in the offensive half and Thompson took control of the throw and fired a point-blank shot past the keeper giving MC a 3-2 lead and ultimately the win.

Lost in a relatively high-scoring game was the effort of sophomore Adam Franczak (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth) who made six terrific saves, five in the second half, to keep the Bulldogs in the game, especially in the second half.

The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday when they stay home to host local rival Moravian College in another non-conference game beginning at 4:00 pm. LIVE Stats will be available on the DeSales web site for the game on Wednesday.