MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Morgantown High controlled its OVAC quarterfinal match against Indian Creek (Ohio) from the get go, barring one slip up, to down the visiting Redskins (5-3-1) by eight goals and advance to the tournament semifinals.
The Mohigans (10-3) seemingly had the game locked down from kick off, taking on the Indian Creek team that lost to Wheeling Central 4-1 one week ago – a team the Mohigans rolled over 9-1 – but a clear path to a victory was masked by a lapse in judgement in the 6th minute. Gunnar Brettell leveled a corner over his attackers, but Markel Papola was in the right spot for a rebound slice for the go-ahead goal.
Papola’s goal put into motion a sweeping Mohigan attack, however, as the trio of Ahmad Mikky, Caden Carpenter and Ben Rosiello began peppering ICHS keeper Coy Amis.
On a corner of his own, Mossimo Darmelio curved the ball right of center for Carpenter to knock in the tying goal with his chin through an unsuspecting Amis and fellow defender. From there Morgantown began finding openings to light up Amis and the Skins’ back line.
After multiple shots on goal saved by Amis, Mikky broke his cold streak to make the go-ahead goal in the 24th minute. At the buzzer Mikky sank his second goal of the half from 20 yards out, pushing the lead to 3-1.
The blind 20-yard shot gave the Mohigans a jump start in the second half. Nico Toro took a pass in the wing, dribbled around Unai Leon and set up Mikky for his third goal and fourth hat trick of the season in the 42nd minute. One minute later, Mikky batted in his fourth goal of the night on an assist from Carpenter.
A gaff on Amis’ end in the 47th minute would give MHS its sixth goal. Joseph Taylor charged up the middle of the box and sent a shot into Amis’ mitts, but the shot landed behind the senior keeper and rolled across the line. One minute later, Carpenter fired a shot that bounced high off Amis’ glove and into the net, giving coach Sam Snyder a good enough pocket to substitute in his bench to relieve the starters.
In the 68th minute, Geoffrey Swisher connected with Braxton Johnson on a corner to give Morgantown goal eight. To end the scoring drive, Toro cleared a long ball next to Amis –– his second of the year.
“It’s easy to score goals when you’re on transition,” Snyder said. “My midfield looked excellent tonight. My defense got involved in the passing which I bet when we look at tape it will be our best passing game of the season. When you take a holistic team approach, you open up space and –– if the attackers do their job –– you’ll have a pretty ferocious night at the net.”
When asked about his fourth hat trick, Mikky credited his coach for the motivation to improve his attack game.
“Coach Sam told me, ‘You have to change your runs. It doesn’t have to be wide every time,’ and that helped me a lot,” the senior striker said. “He (teaches) and pushes me every day. I have him as a teacher and he tells me what to do to improve and that I do well.”
Up next
The Mohigans are slated to take on Wheeling Park in the semifinal round of the OVAC Tournament Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Wheeling. The last time the two teams faced each other, the Patriots came out with a 2-0 win.
“They press better than any team in the state,” Snyder said. “They’re hard to connect passes (around). We’ve been working on finding space, which has been showing up in a lot of games since we played them. We need to find pockets and get our defense involved in the attack. We’ve done really well in the last two weeks of getting our whole team involved in defense, and now we need to get the whole team involved in offense. When we do that, we’ll become a great team.”
Wheeling Park is ranked No. 1 in Class AAA Region I and No. 2 in the state, and a win over the Patriots would propel the Mohigans further up the regional ladder and prepare the team for the upcoming postgame battles. A win would also snap the Patriots’ 10-win streak.
By the numbers
According to MaxPreps, Morgantown is currently ranked 6th in Class AAA and 2nd in Region I. Ahead of the Mohigans is Hurricane (8-1-2), Grace Christian (5-1), Hedgesville (10-1), Wheeling Park (10-1) and George Washington (10-0).
After the loss to the Mohigans on Thursday and George Washington on Saturday, University (8-3) is ranked 8th in Class AAA and 4th in Region I. Another regional opponent, Buckhannon-Upshur (9-3-0) is ranked between Morgantown and University.
The win over Indian Creek marks the Mohigans’ fifth straight win.
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