Halloween Bowling

Halloween is full off dressing up, goofing off, scaring people...and...bowling?
The bowling part is becoming a tradition at Messiah College with two sport teams, men's soccer and lacrosse team. Coming into the third year the soccer team has been dominant winning two years in a row.
But its not all about the bowling, the costumes make or break the event, and this year they were Grade A.

The Freshman: Baby Rabbits
The Sophomores: Tetras
The Juniors: Seal Team 6
The Seniors: Angry Birds

The Senior's Angry Bird..to be posted

Overall, it was an awesome night with the worst score coming from our own Jarrett Weaner with a whopping 54, and best from James Baden with a 172. The best group costume went to the Juniors and Seal Team 6. 

Finally, the most important thing, the winner of the bowl off, for the third straight year was the soccer team, winning 112 to 102.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:34

Be Grateful

Soccer can be a cruel sport, one that offers you so much when it is present, and one that when absent can drive you crazy. Yet, the sport can teach you many life lessons regardless if it is present or not. One that it has taught me this weekend was to be grateful for everything on and off the field.

During the game this weekend one of my good friends, and senior winger Kent Ramirez, went down with an ankle injury, which was his second one this year. When he went down everything around me changed. I have seen a lot of injuries in my time, but this one was different. It was different because Kent, was a senior, and most likely played his last minutes as a Messiah soccer player. 

His injury made me think that nothing can be taken for granted. That God has allowed us the ability to play an amazing sport such as soccer. And you never know when something like an injury can happen, and take you out of the sport. That every time you step out on the pitch, you need to play like it is your last, and love the game, like it was your first.

Soccer has its evil moments, and yet it has those crazy moments there is something greater. The light, enjoyment, and free flowing it provides makes it something you have to love and not take for granted.

Drive All Night

This song on NeedToBreathe's new album is becoming an instant favorite of mine.

I aint lookin for a free ride home, back to the middle,
I need a new locale, I need a girl that calls me baby,
I need to know if she can save me.

I need somewhere I can drive all night, out into the darkness,
Follow the headlights down, I've got know if they can take me,
Ive gottta know if they can save me.

Focus in every word, Change my path,
Maybe I could leave a mark,
Try and prove the poets wrong
There must be time, Maybe we could be the song to march us on

I aint lookin for a free ride home, back to the middle,
I need a new locale, I need a girl that calls me baby,
I need to know if she can save me.

I need somewhere I can drive all night, out into the darkness,
Follow the headlights down, I've got know if they can take me,
Ive gottta know if they can save me.

Beg the Book to turn the page
Cause I get stuck where the villains get away.
Somewhere in this wretched tale, there must be a line where the victim get his way, just one time.
Oh I'll get mine.

I aint lookin for a free ride home, back to the middle,
I need a new locale, I need a girl that calls me baby,
I gotta know if she can take me.

I need somewhere I can drive all night, out into the darkness,
Follow the headlights down, I need to know where they can take me,
Ive gottta know if they can save me.

Drive All Night (yeah Baby Just), Hold On Tight (Oh and you can) , Close your eyes (yeah and), we can say goodbye.
Drive All Night (yeah Baby Just), Hold On Tight (Oh and you can) , Close your eyes (yeah and), we can say goodbye.

Goal And Assist

JP Fulton plays garbage man to Jeremy Payne's deflected shot, resulting in Messiah's eighth and final goal against Geneva College.

Junior JP Fulton sends an in-swinger to Jeremy Payne, who finishes with his head near-post for Messiah's seventh goal against Geneva College.

Coming Home

This past weekend the team traveled to Geneva College, which is located about 45 minutes north of Pittsburgh, to play against another christian college whose soccer program is on the rise.
Our coach had been preaching to us the whole week that they were going to be a tough game. That this team was going to show us emotion and passion, and that Pittsburgh teams, have a blue collar, hard noise type of mentality that we "sometimes lack."

The game lasted around six minutes before the first goal was in the back of the net. And it was around 45 minutes before there were already six goals for Messiah on the scoreboard.

Going into the second half with a score at 6-0, we as a team struggled a little because we didn't want to take our foot off the peddle as we still desired three more goals. More importantly we as a team focused on maintaining the shut out, with our freshman goalie taking over in the second half.

The game ended 8-0 with two goals in the second half from our second team, but more importantly we kept the shut out, and kept building up momentum for this season.

As the game ended the two teams came together, and prayed as one. Not as two teams, but rather as one group of people who all have the same interest, the interest in pleasing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Apartment Living

Living in an apartment with four other soccer dudes has its advantages such as you can talk about Messiah soccer all the time, you can play PS2 anytime you want, and you can have the whole team over anytime and no one feels awkward.

Yet even with all these advantages there are many disadvantages. So here is my list of top 5 disadvantages of rooming in an apartment.

5. Extremely hard to get alone time with your girlfriend
4. 99% of the time there is pee on the toilet seat
3. All your other friends you have made over the past years are not near you
2. The dishes are never clean
1. And because the dishes are never clean, the sink is always full of dirty dishes, making the room smell like the buffalo chicken dip we made last night

So I kind of hated on apartment living, and thats probably because our room was exactly like this not too long ago.

But, I would like to say living in an apartment has been amazing, the ability to live with and near your best friends and teammates is a unique and one that will only make us closer and stronger together. Which in return will help us as a team on and off the soccer pitch.

Busy Week For The Falcons, With Lessons Learned

So first i'll like to apologize to everyone for not writing for a good week, its been extremely busy with school starting, its been pouring outside making me extremely tired, and we had three games in five days.

The overview of the past games I would call bittersweet. We won two out of three, with wins against the clearly tougher opponents Ohio Wesleyan and Haverford. But the week was tainted with a tie against Hiram.

Don't get me wrong, Hiram was a good team, and definitely wanted it more than we did that day. But, we should have beat them, we believe we can beat anyone. And thats not because we have the best players in the country. Rather its because we want it more than any team in the country.

Hiram was a good wake up call for us, yes we had two games in less than 24 hours and yes it was around 95 degrees. But that shouldn't be an excuse, because Hiram had to deal with the same weather and playing conditions.

Hiram was a lesson that will always be a reminder for us that we need to take every game seriously, its always going to be down in the record books under the 0 losses as it stands now 2-0-1. Thank you Hiram for making us better, you truly "sharpen" us.

ISI

Baron Batch

Baron Batch is a current Pittsburgh Steelers football player, who recently tore his ACL right before his first NFL football game. Pray for him, and hope for a quick recovery as he continues to try to glorify God with everything he does.

Baron Batch's Blog

We Are Friends First, And Soccer Players Second

As I am sitting in my room surrounded by my roommates with the bass beating from DBlack's crazy DJing skills, and I start thinking about what makes Messiah soccer so different. Like any team in the country we have superstars, so that can't be it. Like any team in D3 we work hard, so that can't be it. So there has to be something that is totally different, something that has been placed in our hearts from our first day on campus.

Then it came to me as I look up and I'm surrounded by my teammates, we are friends first and soccer players second. Like lets be honest what other soccer program has every single player rooming with either a manager or another player. Or would other program have its players telling their girlfriends "We have team activities, so I cant hang out tonight," even though we were just hanging in an apartment watching incoming freshman running around lost in the hurricane because they lost their peer group leader, I don't think so.

Messiah is something special, its a place where we as a team can grow because individual we have invested in our "friends" lives, living up to the verse Proverb 27:17, "As iron sharpens iron, as one man sharpens another."

ISI

Game Day..Preseason

Quick recap of the recent game at the Shoe. Messiah won one to zero defeating Millersville with a goal from freshman Jack Thompson. 

This game was a great experience for us because it was the first chance for us to play in a competitive game as the 2011 Messiah team. The team really started off strong, but more importantly we finished strong. Its a good start to a hopeful amazing season. 

Thanks Dunkin'

Thanks to Logan Thompson's "Legendary" idea to get some double D's, our night took a whole new level from harassing Brandon West, to around having 400 donuts in the back of an Escalade as we roll out of Dunkin Donuts. A quick recap at 11 pm every night our friend Dunkin has to throw away all the donuts, cinnamon buns, and bagels in the store to ensure the quality of food. As they generously did this, we watch with eager eyes, waiting for the right moment to start dumpster diving. Lets just say we had a great night obtaining which happened to be the perfect midnight snack, and we even had enough to have breakfast before church...for the whole team.

Something Different

Coming into this junior year I was expecting one thing and now expecting something totally different. Everyone wants to be that player, that stud that gets all the attention. And usually on the soccer field that position is center attacking midfield, or as we call it 7. Yet, sometimes God has things different planned for your life, and maybe that is at the position I played last night for a little. In the second half I played right back, and played what I thought really well, and I even got a compliment from our assistant coach. So maybe at the end of the day I won't get the attention or the goals, as I expected at the beginning of the year. Rather I'll be able to be the "hero" which at the end of the day is what people remember.

First Blog. Start Of A New Year..

Sitting in the car for a good 13 hours for a span of two days I had a lot of time to think. Think about everything from my relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to this coming year of school and the new opportunity that is on the horizon. I feel like this is a big year for me in a sense of academics, my relationship with my amazing girlfriend, and the soccer season.

Yet even though this is a big year and it may seem like something I can't control, I know I can. I know that because the Bible says, "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." And this year I need to trust the Lord that He'll be with me and help me through all the road bumps that happen this year, because they will arise.

Relaxing now in the Hampton Inn, I want to say watch out people, its going to be a fun year. So be prepared for an exciting ride.