ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College improved to a best-ever mark of 10-2 overall and 8-0 in the Middle Atlantic Conference Tuesday with a 19-16 home win over Messiah College. It was the host Blue Jays' first win ever in six meetings against Messiah, and the Falcons drop to 6-5 overall and 5-2 in the MAC with the loss. In the game, Elizabethtown sophomore attacker Katie Foley (Palmyra, NJ/Holy Cross) became the third Blue Jay to reach the 100 career goal plateau. She also broke the Elizabethtown College single-season scoring record of 60 set in the program's inaugural season of 2002, and she broke the program record for most points in a season of 80 set in 2005.

Messiah got on the scoreboard first, just 17 seconds into the game as Jackie Dando (West Chester, PA/Henderson) scored off a Jessica VanHook (Pearl River, NY/Pearl River) assist. Elizabethtown took a 3-1 lead as Katie Caprinolo (Jarrettsville, MD/North Harford) first scored off a Kelsea Kozak (Brookhaven, PA/Sun Valley) assist 1:06 into the game, followed by an unassisted Caprinolo goal 3:11 into the game and a Megan Byrnes (Lutherville, MD/Towson) goal off a Foley assist with 24:27 on the clock.

Messiah struck back with a goal with 13:55 left in the first half to narrow the gap to 3-2, but the Blue Jays responded with another 3-0 run over the next 1:40 to build a 6-2 lead. Foley scored on an eight-meter shot at 13:21, followed by a Caprinolo goal off a Foley assist at 13:05 and a Byrnes goal off a Foley assist at 12:15. Messiah scored again at 12:01 to make the score 6-3, but Etown responded with an 8m Foley goal at 10:59 and another Foley off a Kozak assist at 7:48 to push ahead 8-3. Messiah got another goal, VanHook's first, with 7:18 left in the first half, and Foley scored again for Etown with 7:07 left to give the Blue Jays a 9-4 lead. Etown went up 10-4 with 5:52 on the clock as Alisha Sangrey (Columbia, PA/Hempfield) scored off a Kozak assist. Starting a pattern that would repeat in the second half, Messiah scored the final three goals of the first stanza to pull within three, 10-7, striking with 5:27, 4:04 and 1:58 left.

Etown began the second half with three unanswered goals. Byrnes scored off Kozak's fourth assist of the game 48 seconds into the second half. Foley nailed her 99th career goal off a Stephanie Kreis (Bel Air, MD/John Carroll) assist with 27:32 left, and Byrnes struck again off a Foley assist at 26:33 to give the Blue Jays a 13-7 edge. Messiah scored at 23:30 to make it 13-8, and Etown went up 14-8 when Kreis scored a goal of her own at 22:26.

Messiah reduced the deficit to 14-10 with goals at 20:10 and 17:19, and Caprinolo scored with 16:05 left to put the Blue Jays up 15-10. With 12:22 left in the game, Foley hit career goal number 100 and season goal number 60 unassisted to give Elizabethtown a 16-10 lead. Messiah scored on VanHook's third goal with 12:13 left, and Etown responded in kind with Foley's 101st career goal and record-breaking 61st of the season with 10:50 left off a Caprinolo assist. Messiah followed with a goal at 7:32, and Byrnes struck off another Kozak assist for Etown at 6:45.

With another Byrnes goal at 5:31, Elizabethtown held a 19-12 lead and seemed headed for a sure victory. However, with 4:14 left, Messiah's Abby Boyd (Beverly, MA/Beverly) scored the first of what would turn out to be four unanswered goals to conclude the game. With 3:21 left, former Blue Jay Katie DiRico (Hempfield, PA/Hempfield) scored for Messiah to cut Etown's lead to 19-14, and just 20 seconds later Bethany Moskevitz (Peabody, MA/Peabody) scored another goal for Messiah, cutting the gap to 19-15 and making the outcome seem a lot less certain. Elizabethtown was able to hang on the rest of the way, allowing just one more Moskevitz goal with 38 seconds left.

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2007-04-17