WHEELING — After a scoreless first period, Morgantown scored three early goals in a five-minute span and goaltender Hayden Derk stopped 22 of 23 shots as it won the West Virginia state hockey championship Sunday afternoon inside WesBanco Arena, 4-1, over Wheeling Park.
The second-seeded Mohawks (8-7-1) claimed their second Bob Otten Trophy since 2020.
“We piled it on there in the second period,” head coach Robert Rockis said. “The kids played well. We started playing better and got into a flow with more shots. I think we got their goalie off his game.”
For the fifth-seeded Patriots, who were playing their third game in less than 30 hours and had knocked off No. 4 Martinsburg and top-seeded Linsly in Saturday’s quarter- and semifinals — both in OT — the three-goal deficit was too much to overcome.
“I feel for our seniors,” Wheeling Park head coach Marcus Black said. “I’m proud of the guys in our (locker) room. They showed a lot of heart this weekend. If you would have asked me before the season if I thought we would have been playing for the state title, I probably would have said no.
“I think we exceeded our expectations. This team has a lot of character.”
The Mohawks took a 1-0 lead 53 seconds into the 17-minute second period when defenseman Nico Kourtis sent a shot from the left point that hit the right skate of Wheeling Park goaltender Noah Britton and went between his skate and the post to his right. Anthony DiBartolomeo recorded the assist.
They made it 2-0 28 ticks later as Jakob Scheffen-Krause collected the puck in the right circle after Britton had made a big save to his right. Scheffen-Krause’s shot beat the diving Britton as Weston White earned the assist.
It became 3-0 just under six minutes into the period. Geno Valenti gloved the puck down near center ice, skated down the left wing and unleashed a cannon of a shot that sailed over Britton’s glove into the net. The goal was unassisted.
Wheeling Park got on the scoreboard just past the 10-minute mark to make it 3-1.
Luke Simonetti’s shot was stopped by Derk, but sophomore Landon Szazynski was there to knock the rebound past Derk. Kaden Schnarr and Simonetti recorded assists.
The net-finder seemed to inspire the Patriots who started through body checks all over the ice, however, they couldn’t get anything past Derk, a three-year starter.
It wasn’t for trying, though.
With 12 minutes remaining in the third period, Derk stopped a Wheeling Park blast and the puck deflected up in the air and over top of him, landing in the crease before it was cleared away by a Mohawk player.
“We’ve got two senior goalies and they kind of split time, but today Hayden was the man.”
Just over a minute later, Valenti, just a sophomore, gathered the puck near the Patriots’ blue line. After patiently waiting for a teammate to clear the zone and avoid an offsides, he skated to his left before firing a drive from the mid-slot that sailed over Britton’s right shoulder and into the cage for a 4-1 advantage.
“He is a player. Yes he is,” Rockies said.
Britton, who stopped 22 shots, was named the tournament MVP for his spectacular play.
Championship game MVPs went to Valenti and Wheeling Park’s Szazynski.
The Patriots have now been state runners-up six times while winning their only title in 2005.
The Mohawks win avenged a 4-2 loss earlier in the season in Morgantown.
— Story by Kim North
