GRANTHAM, Penn. (Sept. 21, 2021) – For more than 70 minutes here Tuesday, the stingy Rutgers University-Camden defense held one of the top women's soccer teams in the country off the scoreboard.
 
Messiah College, however, scored a pair of goals in less than two minutes late in the game and went on to defeat the Scarlet Raptors, 2-0, in a non-conference game.
 
Messiah, ranked fifth in the country in Tuesday's new United Soccer Coaches NCAA Div. III poll after being No. 1 in both the pre-season poll and the first weekly poll, improved to 4-1-1. Rutgers-Camden fell to 1-5 with its fourth straight shutout loss.
 
During a scoreless first half, Messiah held a slim 3-0 advantage in shots and a 2-1 edge in corner kicks. The Falcons didn't break the scoreless deadlock until 74:30, when Shelby Burger hit a high shot into the center of the goal, assisted by Brianna Seip. It was her first goal of the season.
 
Moments later, at 76:18, Rachael Tirjan scored her sixth goal with an unassisted shot into the lower right side.
 
Messiah finished with a 14-2 advantage in shots, with senior Lauren Calabria and junior Mya Bocchicchio collecting the lone Raptor shots. Bocchicchio had the only Rutgers-Camden shot on goal, forcing the lone save for Messiah keeper Courtney Dunlop.
 
Sophomore goalie Chloe Beasley made six saves for Rutgers-Camden.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Saturday when it hosts Kean University in a 1 p.m. New Jersey Athletic Conference game.