ST. DAVIDS, Pa.— Eastern University Field Hockey opened Eastern's homecoming weekend with a. Hard-fought 3-0 loss to the visiting Messiah University Falcons (6-5, 3-0). The Eagles (7-5, 0-2) held the Falcons scoreless through halftime.
Angelina Catania made 17 stops to go over 400 for her career.
Coming into the game, Catania stood at 396 saves for her career. The junior had work to do early. She made seven saves in the opening quarter. Though the Eastern defense fought off four Messiah penalty corners and kept the shots from mostly manageable angles, The hosts struggled to clear their zone and spent nearly the entire quarter in their own zone.
Eastern did create a chance late when a quick restart in the attacking zone gave the Eagles a penalty corner with six seconds to play. The Falcons fought off the untimed play and the quarter ended without a goal.
Buoyed by that late movement, the Eagles escaped their own zone with more frequency. Though Messiah had a 6-to-1 edge in shots in the second, both teams had just a single penalty corner, and Catania was called on for only a pair of stops.
In the first minute out of the intermission, the Falcons found their moment. A good pass into circle from Chelsea Carlisle found Addie Weiler in a pocket of space. The first-year forward redirected the pass for her sixth goal of the year. Six minutes later Messiah added a second. A smash from Carlisle ricochetted off an Eastern stick into the top of the cage for a 2-0 edge.
The final Messiah goal came midway through the fourth. Catania made a great diving save on a shot from Olivia Saskoda, but the rebound fell back to the Messiah senior who popped in her second of the year.
The Eagles found a few chances late.
Ryhanna Ridgeway had a strong redirect on a pass from
Brynne Miller turned away and the Eagles had their third corner of the game in the waning moments.
In the first five meetings between the two programs since Eastern joined the MAC Commonwealth, the Falcons outscored the Eagles 41-3.
Though the Eagles have dropped their first two league matches, they have faced two of the top three NPI teams in the league. Messiah started the week as the 30th team in NPI and York was 10th.
The Eagles will travel to Albright on Wednesday and are at Neumann next Saturday.
