MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown boys lacrosse team defeated the Fairmont Senior Polar Bears 10-4 on Friday night in the quarterfinal round of the WVSLA state tournament at Pony Lewis Field. MHS senior Preston Harman scored five goals, including his 100th total as a member of the Mohigan lacrosse team.
The playoff jitters seemed to be present for both squads on the opening faceoff. That wouldn’t last very long though as MHS would open the scoring after a minute-long defensive stand.
A stolen ball led to a fastbreak and a nice pass from Nate Kupec found teammate Weston White for the game’s first score. A second was added 90 seconds later by Wyatt Kozel and MHS found themselves ahead early 2-0.
FSHS would stop the bleeding with its first goal at the 7:28 mark in the first. Mohigan goalie Jay Anderson lost the ball at his feet and it rolled into the net to cut the lead in half.
After taking a big hit by one of the FSHS defensive players, MHS senior Preston Harman lined up and lasered the ball into the back of the net from 20 yards away, giving his team another two-goal lead halfway through the first quarter.
After four quick goals, the game would see a lull in scoring as both defenses began to settle in.
Nearly eight minutes passed before the next goal, which came from the stick of a Polar Bear attacker at the 7:16 mark in the second. FSHS would then win the faceoff and score again just 18 seconds later to tie the game at three goals each.
Anderson kept his team tied with a point blank save just three minutes before the half. He wouldn’t stop the next shot however, as FSHS took its first lead and would keep it going into the break, 4-3. The Polar Bears outscored MHS 3-0 in the second quarter.
The Mohigans came out of the locker room desperate for a score and they wouldn’t wait long to find it.
Jack Gruskecky buried a shot in the top corner to tie the game once again after less than two minutes played in the third.
With the game locked at four and both teams avoiding any costly mistakes, the next four minutes saw slow offense and controlled possession by both sides.
With 6:40 left in the third, MHS junior Ty Edgerton found the back of the net to give his team the lead again at 5-4. The pace of the game picked up rapidly as both teams exchanged possession back and forth.
With just 26 seconds on the clock in the third, Grushecky scored his second of the night to give MHS a 6-4 lead, matching its largest of the night.
“In the second half it was more about calming down a little bit,” said MHS head coach Jeremy Bennett. “We were a little anxious like we needed to win every play. The wonderful thing about this team is I just tell my leaders to get everyone going and they take it from there.”
The fourth quarter clock would run in favor of the Mohigans, as nearly six minutes went by before a goal came from either team. Luckily for MHS, it would be Harman completing his hat trick and giving his team its largest lead of the night at 7-4.
90 seconds later, Kozel added his second goal. MHS extended the lead to four goals with just four minutes to play. Harman added two more goals (his fourth and fifth of the game) within a minute of each other to extend the lead to 10-4. His fourth goal was his 100th scored for the Mohigans.
“We came out slow at first, had some jitters to start,” Harman said. “But we got everyone together at halftime at realized that it was win or go home and it completely changed our mindset. As for scoring, I couldn’t do it without my teammates. They help me get space and find open shots.”
MHS outscored the Polar Bears 7-0 in the second half on its way to a 10-4 victory.
The Mohigans will host the winner of University and Spring Mills next week.
