Beckley – Not even broken bones can slow down Jonathan Scott.
Playing with hard casts on both hands after breaking both pinky fingers, Scott scored two goals in addition to the three netted by Coby Dillon as Beckley maintained its regional dominance with a 5-1 win over George Washington Tuesday night in Beckley.
A rematch of last year’s regional title game between a budding power and a perennial one, defending state champion Beckley showed why its still the top dog, punching the Patriots first and never flinching the rest of the way.
Dillon, the reigning state player of the year, struck first on a goal in the first minute, never allowing the visitors to recover.
“We got a quick turnover, they gave it to us and they over-shifted way too much,” Dillon said. “Jonny played a perfect ball to my foot and I was able to just dribble it in.”
“I think they felt like they could exploit some space on the outside and they pushed an outside back way up,” Beckley head coach Steve Laraba said. “The next thing we knew there’s a ball slotted through to Coby and he’s one-on-one with the goal. We tell the guys that – I’m not saying GW came in playing defensively but when they have a plan and something they want to do to slow us down and the opportunities come, we have to take them whether it;s in the first minute or the last minute and I think that set the tone.”
The next goal took considerably longer for the Flying Eagles to secure but Scott did the honors, netting it in the 21st minute. Dillon made it 3-0 in the 38th minute, giving the Flying Eagles a commanding 3-0 lead before the break.
Scott quickly evened his goal and broken pinky count early in the second half with a goal in the 42nd minute to extend the advantage.
Ben Tretheway finally put GW on the board in the 69th minute when a foul in the box led to a successful penalty kick for the Patriots. But Dillon put his foot on the throat, capping a hat trick in the 71st minute.
The victory moved the Flying Eagles to 13-0 on the year, extending an 18-game winning streak dating back to last season. During that stretch they’ve allowed multiple goals just once behind a standout defense that’s carried over from 2024’s title campaign.
“We have a really tough schedule and our back three and our front three, and I’ll throw Vince Umberger in there too because he does a really nice job locking things down,” Laraba said. “The back three, it’s really hard to get quality chances, let alone score against them. It allows the players like Hagen (Hall), and Coby and Ali (Farghaly) and Jonathan and Dylan (Basconi) to stay up the field a little higher that way when we do win the ball those guys can counter and do the things they do really well.”
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