May 9—MORGANTOWN — The University High School boys’ lacrosse team saw its season come to a close on Thursday evening on Bakers’ Ridge, falling to Fairmont Senior 12-9 in a tightly-contested battle of two talented clubs.
The Hawks entered the locker room at halftime, knotted at six, with the visitors after Fairmont Senior had grown an early lead. But the Polar Bears controlled most of the second half and dictated the flow of the game, stifling UHS and heading back to Marion County with a ticket to the state semifinals against Morgantown.
“That was a tough one, ” UHS head coach Antonio Mascaro said after the defeat. “Not only because it’s the last game any of my seniors will play on this field, but maybe the last game they’ll ever play if they don’t continue playing. I think we worked really hard and didn’t deserve to go out the way we did. We lost to a team with a lot of fight and grit, and we didn’t have enough of that today.”
The opening quarter saw the Polar Bears open a 3-1 lead. They scored the game’s first three goals before Dane Wolfe put the Hawks on the board with two minutes left in the frame.
UHS built on Wolfe’s goal and netted three more to begin the second quarter, as Nic Joseph scored his first, and Ethan Garbrick netted two in succession to put his team ahead 4-3.
The following five goals were traded back and forth to end the half. Fairmont equalized before Joseph added his second to retake the lead. Ten seconds later, the Polar Bears tied the game again, but Aydan McClintock fired the Hawks in front again with a goal from long range that bounced into the net.
Just as fast as they had taken the lead, the Hawks lost it as Fairmont Senior knotted the game at six entering halftime.
Out of the break, UHS took another lead from the stick of Maxwell Walker, who scored after a frantic start to the third quarter. But the Hawks wouldn’t score again for the rest of the frame, and the visitors found three goals, the latter with 15 seconds to go before the fourth, to lead 9-7 entering the final 12 minutes of regulation.
“We had a really tough loss last week, and in some ways I’m not sure if we fully recovered from it, ” Mascaro said. “The focus and composure were lacking, and when you come at someone with bad technique or do things in an unfundamental way, a talented team will punish you and beat you.”
Fairmont Senior netted two more goals to begin the fourth and open a four-goal advantage that they used to slow down the pace of play.
Joseph ended the UHS drought with a goal coming at the 6:03 mark, but after a spell of offense that ran three minutes off the clock, the Polar Bears found the dagger to lead 12-8 with 3:57 left.
Garbrick gave the Hawks a glimmer of hope, scoring with 67 seconds remaining, but it wasn’t enough for them to repair the damage.
“The kids are great, they set standards and follow them, ” Mascaro said. “But they’re still kids. They show up ready to work. Not all of them have played a ton of lacrosse, but we’re getting more people interested and more athletes playing the sport. Once you play it, you’re addicted.”