Mustangs bow out of postseason with district semifinal loss

KINNIKINNICK — Though the outcome wasn’t what the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs had hoped for, the team from Dodsonville played at a high level with high energy, but fell in their Division III SE District Semifinal game to the Northwest Mohawks, 4-0 Wednesday at Zane Trace.

Though the ’23 season came to an end, LCHS head coach Jason West spoke about how the entire season was a learning experience for a big junior class that can be used to have improvements for next season.

The loss by LCHS moves them to 8-8-3 overall, sharing the Southern Hills Athletic Conference championship in a three-way tie with North Adams and Peebles this season, as all three teams were 6-1-0 in SHAC games.

“We were excited about this big junior class. We just lost a large senior class last year, and these kids had been very patient and waiting. We were going to reload. What we didn't anticipate was the void in leadership and accountability,” West said. “For two years, this group has been barked at and told what to do, and this year, it was their turn to step up. We were a little slow to transition in that. I finished with the kids tonight, and I told them that I was very proud of them because toward the end of the season, and this couple of games here in the tournament, some kids really stepped up from a leadership and from an accountability standpoint. We have a lot of things to be really excited about next season.

“I'm sure there are several of them that are already thinking about basketball practice and conditioning tomorrow. These kids, man, do they do a lot of stuff. We've got golfers that are playing soccer. We have baseball players that are playing soccer. We've got one or two soccer players that play other sports, but that's what you get into. Sometimes kids just get tired, and as a coach, you got to do a better job than what I do sometimes at pushing them.

“I'm super proud of them,” West continued. “They did a really good job this year.”

In the game, the four goals for Northwest came with a goal by Jay Jenkins in the first half with 16:14 left on the clock, as that was the score at halftime.

“The first half, we had a lot of energy to match theirs. I thought we had two or three opportunities where the luck, or the ball, didn't fall for us, versus that one opportunity where they got theirs to squeak in,” West said. “I thought defensively, we played as sturdy as we have all season long. I thought Austin Bell and JJ Massey up top were working well together when we were able to get them the ball in the first half.”

In the second half, the Mohawks had goals from Caleb Lewis (30:15), Bradley Ruby (25:52) and Evan Mitchell (7:27) for the four-goal win by NWHS.

“The second half, we just kind of ran out of gas. We let one get in, and it just looked like the demeanor of the team changed from that point on,” West said. “Northwest is a really good team, and they have three or four solid players in the middle of the field. They're good, and they should be able to make a pretty solid run.”

West finished by talking about his seniors.

“Layne Ellis and Americo Brioli were four-year participants in our program. Kellen Storer joined us last year,” West said. “He goes to the Christian school in Hillsboro. They’re three hard-nosed kids. They have put up with me for several years, so just in that manner, they should probably be really close to sainthood.”

The postseason, the Mustangs won a sectional championship by defeating Portsmouth West by a 6-0 score on Thursday, Oct. 19 at LCHS.