MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown High School girls’ soccer team is building something special this season.
On Thursday night, the Mohigans turned to their Carpenter to construct their way to the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference tournament title game.
Senior Emily Carpenter recorded a hat trick as MHS beat Brooke, 9-0, in the OVAC semifinal held at Pony Lewis Field.
“I wouldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Carpenter said. “Especially in the midfield as they were fighting for the loose balls and getting me the ball.”
First-year MHS coach Brianna Frontuto said that Carpenter is a consistent scorer, but normally doesn’t put up the number of goals she did on Tuesday. In fact, this is the first hat trick for Carpenter since playing in club season last year.
“I was really pleased with the breakout performance,” Frontuto said. “She’s been a go-to player all season and so it’s nice to see the results and the outcome for her.”
Carpenter scored her first goal in the first half to put the Mohigans up 4-0 as she received a pass from Nora Miller just outside the penalty box and looped the ball over the out-stretched hands of the Brooke goalkeeper and under the crossbar.
The other two goals from Carpenter came to start the second half as she weaved through defenders and launched a ball from 20 yards out that glanced off the keeper’s hands and into the right lower corner. Her final goal came with 21:21 left in the contest when she put a penalty kick into the lower left corner.
Ariana Borneo also had a big night for the Mohigans as she scored two goals and assisted on two others.
Gracie Brown added two goals and one assist while Railey Reeves and Vanja Mueller each had a goal.
The victory is another step forward for the Mohigans who are trying to repeat as Class AAA state champions.
“Obviously we have a new coach and a new system so that has taken some getting used to,” Carpenter said. “I think our goal is to win each game and to get back to states and repeat.”
Morgantown finished with 33 shots and Brooke goalkeeper Franki Neff kept the Bruins (9-6) in the game as she finished with 18 saves.
“She had a really good game,” Brooke head coach Jack Minger said. “Obviously Morgantown is a very good team, and we are missing some of our players due to injury. It’s tough to play with them when we aren’t completely healthy, and they are such a good team.”
Brooke finished with just three shots and MHS keeper Camdyn Smith recorded the shutout with three saves.
The No. 1 ranked Mohigans are now 9-0-1 on the season and will travel to Wheeling Island on Saturday to play in the OVAC title game against Wheeling Park.
BY ERIC HERTER
