MORGANTOWN – Coming into Wednesday night, the University girls soccer team (3-5) was desperate to find a way to defend its home turf and earn a momentum victory to carry into next week. The Hawks dominated possession on their way to a 5-0 shutout of the Monarchs from John Marshall Wednesday evening under the lights at Mylan Pharmaceutical Stadium.
From the opening whistle, UHS pounced to possession on offense. Through ten minutes of the first half, some very nice passing resulted in a pair of chances on goal but nothing showed from it.
UHS would break through the Monarch defense eventually though around the 25-minute mark, as Sam Rechter tucked home after a dangerous cross was sent into the box from the right wing by Riley Tennant giving UHS a 1-0 lead.
Just five minutes later, UHS added a second with yet another cross from the right side of the field that was cleared this time, but fell to the feet of UHS’ Montana Johansson, who calmly weaved through two defenders and fired a shot past the Monarch keeper.
She would add her second goal (her team’s third) with 15 minutes to play after a few wonderful saves from JMHS. The ball bounced around and was put away by Johansson to give UHS a 3-0 lead at halftime.
The dangerous play down the right wing became a theme for the Hawks throughout the opening 40 minutes of play, but UHS head coach Graham Peace says it’s something that he wasn’t particularly emphasizing.
“It just naturally happened for us tonight,” Peace said of his wing play down the right side. “We are trying to get wide on both sides , but it just happened for us more on the right tonight. Riley Tennant playing right mid had a really good game tonight, got the assist on the first or second goal. She played wide and crossed in and we’ve been working on that.”
The Hawks carried momentum into the second half with Rechter adding her second goal just a minute in as another cross was sent into the box by Huckabee and tucked home.
Johansson completed her hat-trick halfway through the second with a nice shot to the far corner from just inside the top of the 18-yard box. The game would end with UHS defeating John Marshall 5-0 and earning a much-needed win going into its next game against cross-town rival Morgantown.
“It’s a good result for us, we scored some goals today. We’ve been working on possessing the ball more and generating more offense through possession. I think we did a better job of that today than we’ve done in the past,” Peace said. “All credit to John Marshall, they played hard.”
As mentioned, UHS will return home on Tuesday, Sept. 13 to host highly-ranked Morgantown High School with kickoff being set for 6:00 p.m.
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