Box score
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Josh Wood continued his torrid goal-scoring pace with a natural hat trick and Geoff Pezon finished with four assists as second-ranked Messiah College pulled away for a 5-1 victory over Elizabethtown College in Commonwealth Conference men's soccer action at Ira R. Herr Field on Saturday night.
Wood scored at 5:18, 52:52 and 81:20 - all off corner kicks - and has scored 10 goals in the last four matches for the Falcons (17-1-0 overall, 7-0-0 Commonwealth), who are the top seed in next week's conference playoffs and will host Lebanon Valley College in a semifinal match next Wednesday night.
The Blue Jays (14-3-1 overall, 4-2-1 Commonwealth) are the third seed in the playoffs and will travel to Arcadia University in Wednesday's other semifinal match. The semifinal winners will meet in the championship match on Saturday.
Elizabethtown jumped to a 1-0 lead just 1:33 into the match as
Javeim Blanchette split the Messiah defense and ripped home his seventh goal of the season. However, the Falcons responded just 27 seconds later as Nick Thompson went high and headed home a pass from Pezon to knot the score at 1-1.
Wood then put the Falcons ahead for good at 5:18 as he headed a corner kick from Pezon into the back of the Blue Jay net. Wood then scored twice more in the second half off assists from Pezon to extend the Falcon lead to 4-1, and Thompson finished off the scoring with 5:55 left as he took a through pass from Wood and went far side.
Messiah held the edge in both shots (19-7) and corner kicks (8-1) over the Blue Jays, and were whistled for nine fouls to six by Elizabethtown in a contest that was far more physical than the foul count indicates.
Eric Carr played the first 62 minutes for the Blue Jays and made three saves before coming off due to injury, and
Andy Barnes finished with two saves in the final 28 minutes. Jared Clugston made two saves for the Falcons, including a key stop on Blanchette midway through the first half to preserve Messiah's one-goal edge.