MORGANTOWN – Thunderstorms couldn’t stop the Morgantown and University boys lacrosse teams from clashing on Friday night on Baker’s Ridge in the regular season finale of the 2025 campaign.
After a 90-minute delay, the Hawks (12-3) and Mohigans (12-2) took to the turf under the lights at Mylan Pharmaceutical Stadium.
After a back-and-forth opening 12 minutes, MHS went on a 7-2 run through the middle two quarters, and added four more goals in the fourth to take the contest 14-7.
“Our motto all year has been to go out and control what we can control,” MHS head coach Jeremy Benett said. “Certain things happen throughout the game that shift momentum, but you can only control what you can control. I think our EMO (extra-man advantage) is pretty good, and the fact that we were able to execute on it was pretty vital for sure.”
The Hawks played well early, but MHS pulled ahead behind the play of its attack, led by senior Aydan Shepard, who netted eight goals (including his 100th career goal), all of which came after the first quarter.
No goals came in the first frame until Nathan Lindsey put MHS ahead from close range. UHS answered with two goals in 30 seconds from Dane Wolfe and Maxwell Walker to steal the lead back, but the Mohigans ended the quarter with scores as Luke Quigley and Cooper Cox found the back of the net behind two well-worked passes.
Leading by one goal, 3-2, Shepard doubled the lead for Morgantown less than two minutes into the second quarter.
Walker added his second for UHS to cut the MHS lead to two goals, but Shepard netted two more before halftime to send his side into the locker room leading 6-3.
Shepard added his fourth and fifth goals to open the third quarter as the Mohigans threatened to put the game out of reach, leading 8-3. UHS tried to break the lines of the visitors while holding their own, but struggled to do so, and Lindsey scored two more goals for MHS to extend the lead to seven.
“We made some individual errors, and then that got compounded by the fact that we spent a lot of time in the penalty box,” UHS head coach Antonio Mascaro said. “They’re a good team; if you give them a weakness to exploit, they’ll do it.”
Ethan Dobrik finally ended UHS’s drought with 90 seconds left in the third, but the deficit was stretched to six goals entering the final 12 minutes at 10-4.
Wolfe gave the Hawks some life with a goal to begin the final quarter, but four more MHS goals slammed the door on the comeback bid.
Both teams will host a quarterfinal matchup next week to begin the WVSLA playoffs. Quarterfinals are slated for the beginning of the week, with semifinals being held at the end of the week.
