WELLSBURG – A slow start in the first half cost the Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Lady Bucs in their Region I Championship game with the Morgantown Mohigans Thursday evening at Brooke High School.

The Lady Bucs couldn’t find the back in the net in the first half and trailed 3-0 and went onto to drop a 4-1 contest.

“I was very pleased with the effort we gave today, but we were just off our game in the first half resulting in the three goals given up,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Jason Piacente. “We have started slow every time we had a long bus ride to a game. But we didn’t give up and were able to play very well in the second half.”

Emily Carpenter had a hat trick for Morgantown in the first half, scoring in the 10^th, 28^th and 30^th minutes.

The first and third goals were unassisted while Riley Lafferty had the assist on the second goal.

Nora Miller put Morgantown up 4-0 in the 67^th minute with an assist going to Carpenter.

Harley Dean had the lone B-U goal in the 70^th minute with the assist by Mallory Hughes.

Buckhannon-Upshur was outshot by a 15-2 margin and trailed in corner kicks by a 5-1 count.

The Lady Bucs were guilty of seven fouls while Morgantown was called for three.

B-U keeper Kyndal Davis made 11 saves while Morgantown Camdyn Smith stopped one shot.

“Morgantown is a talented team and played a good game,” remarked Piacente. “I was very proud of our team for the amount of improvement we have made this season and look forward to the upcoming season.”

Buckhannon-Upshur closed out their season with a 13-6-4 record.

Morgantown will advance to the state tournament along with Hedgesville (Region II), George Washington (Region III), and Parkersburg South (Region IV).

The state semifinals will be on Thursday, Nov. 2 with the championship slated for Saturday, Nov. 4.