By ERIC HERTER
MORGANTOWN – Apparently size does matter.
At least when it comes to the boys’ soccer game at Pony Lewis Field on Thursday night.
Host Morgantown (7-3) used its size, speed and skill on its way to a 5-0 win over rival University (3-7).
The Mohigans feature seven players who stand 5-foot-10 or taller, and they used that size and physical advantage much of the evening on the pitch.
“UHS is a physical team,” MHS head coach Sam Snyder said. “I thought we met their physicality, and we were able to embrace it and build out from it. Our ability to do that is what gave us the chance to get behind them and finish.”
The first goal of the game came with 25:15 left in the first half as senior Caden Carpenter used some nifty footwork to find James Percifield just outside the penalty box. Percifield then showed his own dance-like moves and finished the play with a ball that found the back of the net for a 1-0 lead that Mohigans never surrendered.
Carpenter finished the game with three assists while Percifield added another goal. Senior Bernardo Pereira added two additional goals with Vivek Sriram also scoring for MHS.
“That’s the one thing that we are a little more deficient in than we have been in the past,” UHS head coach Michael Smith said of the physical nature of the contest. “It’s something we have had to deal with against other teams that can really play physically — we do have a little bit of trouble with that. I don’t know if that was completely our downfall tonight, but it was a little bit of that.”
The other downfall for the Hawks was Carpenter, who seemed to be everywhere at once during the contest. And while he said that he enjoys setting up goals for his team, toward the end of the game, he was trying to put a ball into the net — coming up just wide.
“That was a dominant performance from Caden,” Snyder said. “He was able to absorb the pressure on one end and kind of build it out on the other end. He did a really good job just being our possession outlet and from there, we were able to feed off him and move off him and finish.”
The Mohigans scored the second goal of the game with 22:55 left in the first half as Sriram split a pair of UHS defenders and tucked a ball into the lower left corner of the goal. Percifield’s second goal came with 34:38 left in the second half as he received a brilliant pass from Carpenter for a 3-0 lead.
Then came Pereira’s two goals, as he scored with 9:50 remaining in the contest and with 5:58 left in the game. The first of Pereira’s goals was assisted, once again, by Carpenter.
“(Carpenter) is outstanding,” Smith said. “That’s why he is going to be a player of the year candidate. He’s big, strong, fast and has great footwork. We knew he was going to be a threat coming in and he didn’t surprise us.”
The Hawks had a hard time mustering much of an attack after as they finished with just five shots on goal while the Mohigans tallied 14. Connor Montgomery had seven saves in goal for the Hawks. Carter Cave had five saves for the Mohigans while recording the shutout.
The Mohigans return to action on either Monday or Wednesday as they wait to see if they are the two or three seed in the upcoming Ohio Valley Athletic Conference tournament. They will host either a quarterfinal or semifinal contest.
“I think we can win OVAC, honestly,” Carpenter said. “If we keep playing our game and keep practicing hard, I think we can get there and go far in states, too.”
University also awaits its OVAC tournament fate. The Hawks will likely play Monday on the road as the number five or six seed.
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