MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High boys’ lacrosse team capped off its perfect regular season with an 18-5 win over rival University on Friday night.
The win inside Mylan Pharmaceutical Stadium at UHS gave the Mohigans a spotless 14-0 record to wrap up the regular season.
“It’s special, it’s something really special,” MHS coach Jeremy Bennett said after the game. They worked really hard and it’s just special.”
MHS was fast out of the gate on Friday, building a 6-0 lead less than nine minutes into the first quarter. Three of those goals came from junior Wyatt Kozel, who scored four times in the contest.
The Mohigans were dominating possession during that stretch of play, not allowing the Hawks (6-5) a single offensive possession until it was already 6-0.
“I think we just focused on playing hard, playing smart and playing as a team,” Bennett said. “When the faceoff guys are winning faceoffs like they were and the offense is valuing the ball, it’s real tough to beat a team when they do that.”
UHS showed some resilience, however, and scored twice in the final two minutes of the first quarter and also netted the first goal of the second frame to cut Morgantown’s lead to 6-3.
“It was good to see some fight,” UHS coach Brian Houk said. “We knew (Morgantown) was going to come out really strong, but at that point, we kind of had two choices, just give up or show some fight and respond. I’m really proud of our guys, at that point they made the decision to keep fighting.”
Those UHS goals came from senior Jacob Hime and two by junior Connor Montgomery.
Morgantown then scored two goals in 30 seconds and added one more before halftime to lead 9-3 at the break.
“We’ve talked about composure, staying composed and sticking to the plan. They did that,” Bennett said. “Lacrosse is a very momentum game and we kind of took advantage of it.”
The second half was largely controlled by the Mohigans, who scored five times in the third quarter and four times in the fourth.
In addition to Kozel, senior Weston White also scored four goals. Senior Tommy Kurth also had four points with three goals and an assist. Acker Henryk and Nate Kupec scored two goals each while Ty Edgerton, James Wiedebusch and Cole Herald all scored once. Evan Burton had two assists.
Noah Dower and Jay McKenzie scored for UHS in the second half.
With the regular season completed, University will travel to Fairmont for the first round of the playoffs on Wednesday. The winner of that game will play Morgantown, who received a first-round bye, in a state semifinal match.
TWEET @CodyNespor
