Morgantown boys fall to George Washington in state semifinals

BECKLEY — The Morgantown boys’ soccer workforce noticed its season come to an finish Thursday night by means of a 5-1 defeat to George Washington within the semifinals of the Class AAA WVSSAC state soccer event.

The Mohigans scored the opening purpose of the match to take a 1-0 lead after simply 10 minutes had been performed however the Patriots equalized 5 minutes later and located the lead simply earlier than halftime. Three further objectives have been added within the second half by GW en path to the ultimate rating.

The Patriots will await the winner of Spring Mills and Hurricane within the championship on Saturday afternoon.

The Mohigans end their season with a file of 17-5-1.

“You give GW an inch they usually can take a mile,” MHS head coach Sam Snyder mentioned. “In the event that they get an opportunity on a 1-on-1 or to make a transfer they’re going to make it more often than not they usually’re tremendous gifted, all of the credit score to them. (Thursday) wasn’t our day.”

MHS opened the scoring simply ten minutes into the match when Alexander Gonzalez-Tanon related with a free kick performed into the field by Aidan Stire. Gonzalez headed the ball over the arms of the GW keeper and into the again of the web to interrupt the ice.

It didn’t take lengthy for the Patriots to equalize although, as GW’s Michael Luechauer took the ball into the field by himself earlier than placing the ball into the again of the web after MHS keeper Tyler Crites slipped out of place.

GW took a 2-1 lead into the break after ahead CJ Knapper labored the ball down the fitting wing earlier than slicing inside to his left foot with some fancy footwork. He wrapped his left foot across the ball and curled a shot into the far nook of the web for the go-ahead purpose.

The Patriots picked up within the second half proper the place they’d left off within the first, because it solely took 5 minutes to seek out their third purpose as soon as the second half had began.

Knapper transformed a penalty kick after an unintentional handball by one of many MHS gamers within the 18-yard field to double the lead at 3-1. The fourth GW purpose got here on one other penalty kick after a foul was known as contained in the field as effectively.

The fifth got here from one other spectacular solo effort by Luechauer as he break up a pair of defenders earlier than burying the shot into the far nook for our closing rating of 5-1.

“I’ll take a number of the blame, in fact, I confused the boys a bit making an attempt to get us in areas that we possibly weren’t snug with,” Snyder mentioned. “But additionally they’re a extremely good workforce and it takes considered one of your greatest video games to beat them. We now have nothing however respect for them.”

Snyder additionally spoke about his workforce total this 12 months and what they meant for this system.

“Our seniors have been our backbone and spine,” Snyder mentioned. “They’ve carried this workforce on and off the sphere mentally, bodily, emotionally. They started their varsity careers as champions and in my e-book, they’re leaving as champions. It simply wasn’t our event this time.”