MORGANTOWN — The University High boys’ lacrosse team has seen its’ 2024 off to an undefeated start improving to 8-0 with a 22-4 defeat of the Preston High Knights on Thursday evening on Baker’s Ridge.
The Hawks’ 18-point victory is the largest margin this season so far, and 22 goals is the season-high for a single game.
UHS led 12-0 after the first and 17-1 at halftime. The Hawks had nine different scorers in the game and three players, Colin Carey, Connor Montgomery and Andrew Modecki ended the night with a hat-trick of at least three goals.
Liam Root scored all four goals for the Knights.
“We have some fantastic senior leadership, our staff has been great setting up our players to succeed,” UHS coach Brian Houk said. “These seniors have been going at it for four years and we’ve seen some success but haven’t gotten back to the big game in a while. I think everything is just clicking and the hard work is coming together.”
Senior attacker Connor Montgomery, a four-year starter and one of the leaders for Houk and the Hawks, scored his 100th career goal on Thursday night early in the first quarter. He scored all five of his goals against Preston in the opening quarter.
“Initially, it wasn’t something I was too focused on,” Montgomery said of his achievement. “But once I started thinking about it, this isn’t something that’s been done that many times. Starting as a freshman and being able to build on that year-by-year has been important.”
With lacrosse being a sport that is growing every year with new teams and players, Houk understands the importance of having his players have some of that under their belt.
“It’s huge to have some of the experience we have,” he said. “Someone like Connor who has been playing since middle school is sort of an outlier in the sport in the state. That shows up when we get to this point of the season and later on. That foundation of stick skills and basic IQ is a big head start. Doing the little things can make a difference in a win and a loss. I didn’t even start playing until ninth grade and wish I would have, looking back.”
Experience isn’t the only thing that has been key to the Hawks’ recent success, as Montgomery believes the chemistry of the team has increased dramatically.
“We are clicking and not trying to play hero ball or anything like that,” he said. “We trust everyone on the field to go out and do their thing instead of forcing the ball somewhere or trying to win one way.”
Houk echoed the thoughts of his centurion senior captain.
“If one person on our offense gets focused on or the other team is trying to shut them down, we have seven other guys who can put the ball in the nack of the net,” he said.
The Hawks will stay home Friday to host Wheeling Park at 6 p.m.
