MORGANTOWN — Anyone who’s watched “Law & Order” — or at least “Judge Judy” — has learned that possession is 9/10 of the law, right?
Well, when it comes to lacrosse, possession might be more like 99/100 of the game, and last night at chilly Mylan Pharmaceuticals Stadium, the University girls, facing a game against a short-handed Preston team, controlled both the faceoff circle and the scoreboard, cruising to a 16-4 victory.
The Hawks (5-0) took the lead just 11 seconds in when Mallory Napolillo converted after a pass from center Sophie Armstrong, then doubled their advantage less than two minutes later on Morgan Crocco’s bounce shot that slipped by the Knights’ goalkeeper Emilie Roth. When Olivia Quarrick scored on a feed from Alex Lang two minutes later, UHS was in command.
Maintaining a goal-a-minute pace, the Hawks soon led 8-2, with Preston’s speedy forward Hannah Rosenberger scoring both goals for the Knights (0-5).
After a pair of UHS scores from Chasity Louk and Leigh Osborne, a pretty seam pass from the Knights’ Hannah Keener freed up Riley Poe for a textbook offensive scoring play to make it 10-3.
Another clever assist, this time from Osborne from behind the net to teammate Kendall Kirby, made it 11-3 and closed out the first half scoring.
It was more of the same early in the second half, as four Hawks scored, including Ava Foreman, who achieved a hat trick. Logan White and Alexa Mascaro also scored.
After the game, Preston coach Chris Gank applauded his team’s 50-minute effort.
“You know, playing against a deep, experienced team can be pretty demoralizing, especially when you have only one sub and a bunch of your teammates are still in on-the-job training, trying to learn the game at the varsity level,” he admitted. “So it might be easy to get discouraged, to stop playing hard and giving your best effort, but that never happens with these girls. I’m proud of how hard they work, how hard they try and that they remember to have fun out there. That’s what it’s all about.”
According Hawks coach Kevin Armstrong, his team did a solid job in their set offense.
“We really wanted to emphasize our passing game tonight, and with six assists, it was pretty much mission accomplished,” he said. “Of course, being aggressive on the faceoff, both with the center [three-year starter Armstrong] and the wings [senior White and junior Foreman] assisting, is always the key. We’re experienced, with ten seniors back from a team that lost in the state championship, and we’re just hoping to keep improving every game, and maybe we’ll get a chance to make that last big step.”
The Knights travel back down Route 7 on Monday to face Morgantown, while University is back in action tonight at East-West Stadium in Fairmont to face Fairmont Senior.
