Beckley – Beckley’s 2024 title run is remembered for the exhilarating dramatic victories over Wheeling Park and Hurricane.
The 2025 title loss saw the Flying Eagles experience the same heartbreak they dished out a year earlier.
Tied 1-1 after a pair of extra time periods, Hurricane outscored Beckley 3-1 in a penalty kick shootout to claim the inaugural Class AAAA state championship, avenging last year’s title loss.
Scoreless at the half, Hagen Hall, who nailed the game-winning goal with seven seconds to go a year ago, struck the Redskins again in the 52nd minute. After Hurricane keeper Seth Casto bobbled a ball, Hall finished the play with a header for a 1-0 lead.
Hall later sustained an injury and left the game.
“It may have been emotionally a little more (draining) than physically because Hagen is such a big part of this group,” Beckley head coach Steve Laraba said. “They’re all such just truly great friends and they just hate to see their teammates in that much pain. I thought Miles Davis did a great job when he came in.”
Eight minutes from a repeat, the hosts yielded a goal to Harris Coulter, tying the contest and eventually sending it to a pair of extra time periods.
From there the Flying Eagles started in a hole, missing their first three penalty kicks while Hurricane’s Landon Stonestreet and Jack Willis were money on theirs. Jackson Shroder put Beckley on the board at 2-1 but Coulter delivered the winning strike on the Redskins’ fourth try.
“I knew it was going to be tough,”Laraba said. “It was going to be tough for both teams if you look at how the goalkeepers did. Bryson (Doss) saved two, Seth (Casto) saved two. We just weren’t fortunate enough to hit the target on the two.”
Despite possessing the ball for much of the first half and pressuring the Hurricane back line, the Flying Eagles struggled to slip one past Casto. An efficient set piece team over the last two years, Beckley went 0-for-5 on corner kick attempts in the first half.
“I don’t think we struggled too much with them, it’s just that both teams knew that the other teams were really good on set pieces,” Laraba said. “I’m sure that spent a lot of time practicing on how they were going to deal with ours and we spent a lot of time practicing on how we were going to deal with theirs. There were a couple where we were very close and we just didn’t get that final touch. On theirs, there wasn’t a lot of danger and I thought we handled them really well.”
“Seth Casto just does an excellent job of keeping the ball out of the net,” Hurricane head coach Kent Bailey said. “He bobbled one and unfortunately they capitalized on it but he saw all the way around. Going into extra time we knew we had the bets keeper out of all the players today. Seth Casto’s just an incredible teammate and goal keeper. Just a big guy and he’s something else. We went to penalty kicks knowing we had the advantage and felt confident.”
The Flying Eagles graduate a talented group of seniors led by reigning Player of the Year Coby Dillon, Jonathan Scott, Jackson Gray, Doss, Schroder, Tyler Radford and more but return a talented core highlighted by Hall, Ali Farghaly, Davis and Vince Umberger.
“I’m going to remember the fun that these guys had in practices,” Laraba said. “They played with a purpose and free flowing style and their heart and dedication to each other and the team and this school and this community.”
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