ELKINS — The Morgantown High boys’ lacrosse team completed a perfect season on Saturday, winning the WVSLA division 1 state championship 13-7 over George Washington at Davis & Elkins College.
The Mohigans finish the season with a perfect 16-0 record and the third state title in program history.
“The kids worked hard all year,” MHS coach Jeremy Bennett said. “When we had an early season meeting, we had a discussion about what we were going to do that’s different than everybody else. That came down to how we practiced, how we prepared and how we didn’t underestimate anybody.”
MHS last won a state title in 2012 and also in 2008.
Morgantown goalie Alex Bruni was named MVP of the game, finishing with nine saves in the MHS net.
“It’s wild because we’ve been working at this for three years,” Bruni said. “It hasn’t sunken in, that bus ride home will be fun. It’s a good way to go out, one final ride.”
“Bruni stood on his head,” Bennett added.
The first quarter of Saturday’s championship tilt was a back-and-forth affair between the Mohigans and Patriots (11-3).
GW’s Drew Allen opened the scoring at the 6:49 mark of the first quarter. Morgantown responded with back-to-back goals by Cole Herald and Weston White, but GW tied the game at 2-2 in short order on a goal from Garrett Curry.
The teams continued to trade scores into the second frame when Tommy Kurth tied the game 4-4 with 7:54 to play in the second quarter.
“It’s a little scary when you’re undefeated and you haven’t had a close game in a little while,” Bennett said. “There’s a little bit of concern there, but they persevered and played as a team.”
MHS scored the final two goals of the half thanks to White and Ayden Shepard to lead 6-4 at halftime.
“We just had to remember to play our game,” Bruni said. “We’ve been a second-half team all season.”
It looked like the ping-ponging would continue when GW’s Isaac Collins found the back of the net to open the third quarter and make it a 6-5 contest, but the Mohigans scored the next five goals in the frame, including four in the final 2:28, to take a commanding 11-5 lead into the fourth.
“I think we were a little unsettled (in the beginning) and we were trying to do it all in one play,” Bennett said. “We got composed and got back to playing our game.”
Both teams scored twice in the final stanza to reach the 13-7 final reading.
Wyatt Kozel finished with four goals to lead MHS, all scored in the second half. White and James Wiedebusch had two each. Herald, Kurth, Shepard, Henryk Aker and Niko Monroy accounted for the remaining tallies.
For GW, Luke Jarret scored three times, Allen scored twice and Curry and Collins each had one goal.
Almost immediately after the final buzzer sounded, the Mohigans FaceTimed teammate Josh McDonald, who was unable to attend the game due to injury, so he could share in the celebration.
“We’re all tight-knit, we’re all best friends,” Bruni said. “Our team chemistry is awesome, we’re always hanging out, always doing something together so we know how to play together on the field.”
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