Mar. 29—MORGANTOWN — The University girls' lacrosse team continued their state title defense on Friday evening, welcoming visiting George Washington to Baker's Ridge for a matchup of top teams.
Both the Hawks and Patriots entered the contest undefeated, but the hosts got the better of the visitors on Friday as UHS earned a decisive 19-8 victory to improve to 5-0.
The Hawks dominated the match early on, but George Washington rallied to close the gap to two goals by halftime.
Despite being down a player to open the second half, the Hawks scored a goal three minutes into the third quarter with an extended possession, setting the tone for the remainder of the contest for first-year head coach Hailey Mostacciuolo and her club to break open the advantage.
"We came out hot today and were executing our plates early on, which we liked to see, " Mostacciuolo said. "I'm really proud of our defense and our transition today. I would like to clean up some of our passes, as we get a little frazzled sometimes when we are trying to move a little too quickly, but overall, we had a good game tonight."
Goals were traded to begin the game as Adrienne Rager opened the scoring for the Hawks, but Sadie Harris answered for George Washington less than 90 seconds into the first quarter.
UHS scored four more times before the end of the frame behind some strong defense, which sparked multiple goals in transition on offense and took a 5-1 lead into the second.
"That's incredibly important for us, " Mostacciuolo said of the UHS fastbreak. "If we can't get the ball down the field, it doesn't matter if you get it back on the defensive side because you're still playing defense if you give it away."
Baylee Wilson extended the UHS run to five goals 30 seconds into the second quarter, but the hosts wouldn't score again for nearly six minutes of game time.
That opened the door for the Patriots to make progress on the Hawks' lead before halftime.
Harris added her second goal at the 9:47 mark, and Maisie Bishop added another two minutes later to cut the lead to 6-3.
Anna Mcbee answered for UHS, converting a penalty try, but the visitors added two more goals before the break to cut the UHS lead to 7-5.
That's when it seemed that the team that entered the locker room at halftime for UHS was not the same team that exited for the second half.
UHS slowed the game's pace to begin the third and took nearly three minutes off the clock before scoring a goal for an 8-5 lead.
"That was intentional, " Mostacciuolo said. "We were a player down to open the second half and wanted to hold possession while at a disadvantage. Then getting that goal after running that time off the clock was awesome."
UHS doubled their first-half goal total in the third quarter and took a 14-7 lead into the final 12 minutes.
The Patriots managed only two goals in the second half, one coming in the third and fourth quarters.
The Hawks scored five more times in the fourth to remain unbeaten in 2025. On Wednesday evening, they will travel across town to visit rival Morgantown.
