By John Lowe, For the Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown High School boys’ lacrosse team made light work of the Wheeling Park Patriots on April 17, scoring eight goals in the second quarter to cruise to a 12-3 win.
It wasn’t easy for MHS initially. The game remained scoreless due to poor ball control by both teams throughout most of the first quarter. The Mohigans (7-2) did get a couple of shots off, but all were blocked by Wheeling Park.
“We just needed to get back to what we do well,” MHS head coach Jeremy Bennett said. “When we slow the ball down and value it, we’re able to run the offense the way we wanted to.”
The Mohigans took Bennett’s coaching to heart, and senior midfielder Hazen Powell finally drew first blood for MHS with a goal with three seconds remaining in the first quarter.
“Getting the first goal kind of set the tone of momentum,” Bennett said. “I think that was a big contributor to getting the momentum in our favor.”
Thirty seconds following the second quarter faceoff, senior midfielder Noah Yohn found the back of the net to go up, 2-0, on the Patriots (0-6). Powell struck again less than two minutes later to give the Mohigans a 3-0 lead.
The second quarter onslaught continued four minutes later. Yohn, sophomore attackman Nate Goldcamp and junior midfielder Cody Calvert added three more goals within a minute and a half to give MHS a 6-0 lead.
With a little over a minute to go before halftime, Yohn kicked off another round of Mohigans scoring. Mike Jones followed with 31 seconds to go and Calvert capped off the first half with a goal 15 seconds later.
Wheeling Park came out swinging in the second half, scoring a couple goals while holding MHS scoreless for almost 10 minutes. Junior midfielder Cole Hadrych finally cracked the Mohigans’ drought with a goal with two minutes and five seconds left in the third.
Calvert scored 15 seconds into the fourth quarter and Park retaliated seven minutes later. Yohn put the game on ice with his fourth goal, with 2:09 left in the game.
Yohn’s four goals and an assist led the Mohigans, and he even recorded a hat trick before halftime.
Calvert picked up a hat trick of his own, scoring three goals. Powell added two goals.
Defensively, the Mohigans limited their time in the penalty box, but Bennett is still striving to get closer to perfection in terms of penalties.
“I think we did a good job of not chasing the stick and playing the body and also controlling our sticks, because in the past we’ve had problems with penalties,” Bennett said. “So I think we did a much better job at controlling our sticks. It’s still a work in progress because it wasn’t a perfect game penalty-wise, but a much better job controlling the body and not overcommitting.”
Morgantown returns to action Friday, heading to Charleston to face rival George Washington.
“I’m pretty stoked,” junior defenseman Matteo Darmelio said. “It’s going to be a good game. Go down to Charleston and give them a good, hard game.”
The Colonials eliminated the Mohigans in the state quarterfinals, 13-4, last season.
“Let’s just say I’m certainly excited” for George Washington, Bennett said.
