Morgantown cruises into state lacrosse semifinals with 18-4 defeat of Martinsburg
MORGANTOWN – After a heartbreaking end to its season a year ago in the semifinals of the WVSLA state playoffs, the Morgantown High School boys' lacrosse team entered this postseason with one goal: winning.
The Mohigans worked hard on that goal on Wednesday night at Pony Lewis Field in the opening round of the playoffs, leaving no doubt in an 18-5 victory over Martinsburg to advance to the semifinals. There, they will await the winner of University and Fairmont Senior on Thursday evening.
MHS was again led in attack by senior Aydan Shepard, who scored six goals against the Bulldogs. He capped the regular season, scoring eight against UHS in a 14-7 win.
Luke Quigley added four goals, and Nate Lindsay netted three to join Shepard with multiple scores. Luke Stahara, Matt Brown, Jacob Hollander, Nash Coffman, and Cooper Cox were the other goal scorers for MHS.
'I thought we came out and did what we talked about last game, which was controlling what we can control,' MHS head coach Jeremy Bennett said. 'We talk about mental toughness and focusing on what we need to do, and our guys went out and did their jobs well tonight.'
Martinsburg was the team out to an early lead with a goal less than 60 seconds into the game. Shepard answered with his first two goals, the second coming with 7:08 left in the quarter, to give his team a 2-1 lead.
The Bulldogs responded with their second goal to tie the game a minute later, but that would be their final goal until the final stages of the second quarter, as Morgantown exploded for a 10-1 scoring run to lead 12-3 at the halftime break.
Lindsay and Quigley got the run started with their first goals. Shepard completed his hat trick in the first with his third goal while Brown and Coffman added the sixth and seventh goals for Morgantown to lead 7-2 after the opening 12 minutes.
'Again, like I said, controlling what we can control,' Bennett said about his team's response to falling behind early on. 'And of course, putting the ball in the back of the net when we need to.'
The scoring run continued into the second quarter as Cox netted the eighth Mohigan goal and Shepard added two more to push the lead to eight, 10-2.
Martinsburg finally found a goal with its third to stop the bleeding, but the Mohigans ripped the band-aid right back off with two goals to end the half.
Quigley added three in the third, Lindsay finding his third, and Hollander adding his goal.
Stahara capped Morgantown's night with the 18th goal of the contest as the hosts defended their turf with a dominant victory over Martinsburg.
Morgantown will face the winner of University/Fairmont Senior in the semifinals.
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