MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Gabe Turak celebrated his Senior Night with a hat trick, leading Trinity past Notre Dame, 7-0 on Thursday.
The lopsided victory did not come without an impressive stat from Notre Dame’s sideline: Irish goalkeeper Wade Britton came away with a whopping 25 saves.
It was still not enough to stop the Warriors (9-4), who took 21 shots on goal and added 12 corner kicks in the first half.
Trinity was exceedingly dangerous offensively from the opening whistle, and they finally solved Britton in the eighth minute, when sophomore Carmelo Knista poked a ball free in front of a prone Britton and walked in free for an uncontested goal.
In the 20th minute, the Warriors doubled their lead when junior Kyle Knight flew in off the left flank and powered a left-footed shot off Britton’s fingertips.
Four minutes later, Notre Dame (1-8-1) left their left side exposed again, and Turak scored the first of his three goals.
With six minutes left until the break, Trinity midfielder Carter Hartsock scored the most impressive shot of the night, a right boot bomb from 32-yards out that rang off the sidebar and in.
The Warriors eased up slightly in the second half, but still managed to pressure the Irish into another dozen corners and three more tallies. In the 51st minute, Turak potted his second of the night, drilling a left foot shot from the corner of the 18-yard box that found the opposite corner.
Then the senior finished off his hat trick after a lovely, mirror-image goal from the right side of the box, hit with his right foot and buried into the left corner of the net.
Finally, in the 74th minute, freshman Mason Rodeheaver pounced on a loose ball at the six and buried it behind Britton to finish the scoring.
After the comfortable win, happy Trinity first-year coach Dan Lohmann had nothing but praise for both Britton and his team’s performance.
“I’d never seen him before,” he said, “but we knew he was a very talented, confident, and athletic keeper almost immediately. So, it became our job to figure out their strengths and weaknesses, and decide how to attack their back wall. And because we put lots of shots on frame, we found out the best path to success.
“After that, we did a great job of connecting, moving without the ball, playing into space, and building up in the attacking third. We were calm and patient on the ball, and looked to move the ball to open players. We played quality soccer — not always easy in games like this – and I was especially encouraged by the quality of our finishing touches. We knew they had to be really good shots to beat Britton, and we delivered. It was a terrific team win.”
Girls’ soccer
University 3, Parkersburg 1
PARKERSBURG — Tali Sizemore scored two goals and Emily Lattea added another, as the Hawks took down Parkersburg.
Sizemore got UHS (8-6-0) on the board early, connecting on Morgan Ryan’s corner kick in the third minute.
Sizemore doubled the lead 20 minutes later, converting a penalty kick after she was taken down dribbling into the box. The Hawks again capitalized on a Ryan corner early in the second half, when Mia Travis collected a bouncing ball and played it to Lattea, who slotted a shot through a crowd and into the net for her 25th goal of the season.
Rachel Works finished with 10 saves for UHS.
The Hawks will host Weir at 11 a.m. Saturday on Senior Day.
Volleyball
Clay-Battelle 3, Tygarts Valley 0
Lydia Moore had eight kills and five service aces to lead Clay-Battelle to a sweep over Tygarts Valley.
The set scores were 25-17, 25-14 and 25-14.
Mackenzie Wilson had five kills and Hannah Hanlin added four. Kendal Saul had 13 aces and added seven assists.
Clay-Battelle (8-6) will host Paden City and Trinity in a tri-match at 5:30 p.m. Monday.
