Longwood goalie Jayden Messina goes coast-to-coast for goal

Longwood goalie Jayden Messina is used to keeping balls out of the cage. On April 2, he rewrote the script and cut up Floyd’s defense to go coast-to-coast and score in Longwood’s 9-5 win.

“I started running and no one stepped up to me. I could’ve thrown the ball out if I needed to,” said Messina, a senior. “I was worried about missing, but I was able to slot it in the left corner.”

Neither coach Bryce Krawec or predecessor Chris DeLuca — the latter began coaching Longwood in 2016 while Krawec began in 2021 — had seen a goalie goal during their tenures, making this Longwood’s first such goal in at least nine years. DeLuca did coach Messina in middle school, with the writing on the wall even then.

“[Messina] was always an athletic goalie,” DeLuca said. “I am not surprised!”

Krawec said the team has experimented with letting Messina take his space. The coach said he wasn’t any more stressed with Messina’s venture than he would be anyone else, expressing his confidence in his goalie.

Messina had six saves in the team’s home win. He made the moment sweeter by replicating Cristiano Ronaldo’s signature soccer celebration.

“Me and the team talk about [celebrations] all the time, but I didn’t know what to do when I scored,” Messina said. “I was running to the corner, so it made sense.”