Brooke’s season ends with a tournament defeat at Park | News, sports, jobs

ON THE PITCH – Brooke’s Jania Jones attempts to move the ball upfield against Wheeling Park. -Nick Henthorn

WHEELING – The Wheeling Park Patriots’ postseason began with a bang on Tuesday, a dominant 9-0 win over the Brooke Bruins at Wheeling Island Stadium.

The Patriots led 8-0 at halftime in their semifinal game. Wheeling Park (14-4-1) will face Morgantown, which beat John Marshall 10-0 in its own section semifinal, in the section championship.

It will be the third meeting between the Patriots and the Mohigans. Each team has won one game against the other so far. The game is scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. in Morgantown.

“It’s a long season and we were looking forward to competing in the tournament and starting it off with Brooke.” said Wheeling Park head coach Tom Smith. “I was pretty happy with the way we moved the ball today.”

Brooke (9-8-1) sees her season come to an end and says goodbye to five seniors: Emily Schulte, Hailey Buterbaugh, Payton Adler, Jania Jones and Lyla Horvath.

“If you look at our schedule, we had a very tough schedule” said Brooke head coach Jack Minger. “There were games that we could have won, should have won, that we didn’t win, and there were games that we just beat.”

It was the third time Wheeling Park and Brooke faced off, with the Patriots winning all three matchups.

“They’re just too good.” Minger said. “There’s not much more to say. We made a lot of little mistakes and they capitalized on them. The score shows it.”

The Patriots scored twice in the first five minutes, with Park’s Katelyn Smith and Julia Dunaway scoring in nearly identical fashion, taking out a defender to touch him and fire uncontested shots on goal.

Dunaway scored her second goal of the game in the 11th minute, running at full speed on the right wing before firing a shot that bounced off the crossbar and into the net. Smith scored her second goal of the game in the 15th minute.

Dunaway scored the hat trick in the 19th minute and Parks Lauren Spears scored the goal in the 21st minute to make it 6-0.

Brenna Tipton scored twice in three minutes, first converting a kick from close range and then scoring her second with a clever move that marched away from goal to smother play before punching it through.

Brooke’s sophomore goalkeeper Ivy Myers finished the game with 11 saves and held her own against the constant barrage.

“She had a really good season.” Minger said of Myers. “Last time I checked she was second in AAA, she had over 200 saves before this game, I’m not sure what she has now. She’s only a sophomore and she’s going to be really good for the next few years.”

Wheeling Park had 20 shots on goal, Brooke had one. The Bruins had a goal by Brianna Bassett called back for offside in the first half.

Wheeling Park will look to keep its offense going against the Mohigans. Smith says his team has been doing pretty well lately.

“As far as ball movement and off-ball movement go, we’ve done really well in the last four or five games […] I am very pleased with the girls’ selflessness and the way they all play together as a team. They don’t care who scores, it’s all about winning.”

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