The C. Milton Wright Mustangs celebrated senior night with a comeback victory over the Patterson Mill Huskies, 7-6, in overtime. The Mustangs (5-5, 4-2 Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference) trailed by two late in the fourth quarter before ending the game with three unanswered goals.
“Proud of the guys, we battled back,” CMW head coach Andrew Gerard said. “Showed a lot of heart at the end, to be down two with about three minutes left and battle back and get that win in overtime. Some good defense there at the end, so proud of them in that sense.”
Down two with four minutes left in regulation, Blaine Dail scored his fourth goal of the game to cut CMW’s deficit to one. Dail scored three goals in the first quarter, including one off a Huskies turnover.
With exactly one minute remaining, Cody Mattox tied the game for Wright. In overtime, Kevin Morris stole the ball from Patterson Mill and took it all the way to score the game-winning goal.
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One of the most significant factors for Patterson Mill was turnovers. The Huskies finished with 12 turnovers, two leading to goals on the other end including the game-winner.
“Playing C. Milton Wright is a solid team, they’ve always had a solid program,” Patterson head coach Matt Madsen said. “I think for us to play this team tonight on their turf, on senior night, I think we just had a little bit of jitters.”
Fletcher Steinkraus scored the Huskies’ first three goals, including a backhand shot early in the second that tied the game at 3. Later in the quarter, Johnny Garst shot under the goalie’s legs to give Wright the lead.
After Garst’s tally, the two teams went over seven minutes without a goal. The drought ended when Jacob Glendon found the net to tie the game with just under four minutes left before halftime.
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“They started putting their long stick middie on our top midfielder, No. 13 Drew [Pape],” Madsen said. “We tried to do some things to try and get him free to dodge to the goal and we had some challenges there.”
The third quarter, like most of the game, was a defensive battle. The only goal scored by either team came with 8:16 remaining as Will Pape scored for Patterson Mill. He added his second goal of the game in the fourth quarter which extended the Huskies’ lead to two.
Dail was the only Mustang with multiple goals. Garst, Morris, and Mattox each scored one. Tyler Mann started in goal and made nine saves for Wright.
“His performance is always big for us, he’s always a prolific scorer for us, puts up a lot of goals so we need him to be producing like that,” Gerard said of Dail. “He also sees the field well, creates a lot of opportunities because he’s scoring a lot.”
[ High school sports roundup from April 27. ]
Steinkraus and Pape combined for five goals, Glendon was the only other player from Patterson Mill to score. Ethan Kroll started in goal and made 12 saves for the Huskies.
With the victory, the Mustangs snapped a three-game losing streak. Each of those three games was decided by two scores or more.
“We need that momentum going forward, we got a big game on Friday,” Gerard said. “We were kind of on a little bit of a losing streak here so we really need that momentum. It’s big for us to keep things rolling here.”