Braxton County's Peyton Sharp races past Williamstown's Eli Houser (37), Landon Miller (25) and Mason Mercer (21) during the Eagles' 6-0 Little Kanawha Conference championship match victory Saturday at Bill Hanlin Stadium in St. Marys. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

ST. MARYS — With five seconds remaining in Saturday’s Little Kanawha Conference championship match the only question left was whether Braxton County was going to earn a shutout against Williamstown.

Yellowjacket Gavin Sivard had a chance to get the No. 2 seed on the board, but his penalty kick toward the left corner was saved by a diving Blaine Hines as the Eagles of head man Nathan Smarr repeated as LKC champs following a 6-0 victory at Bill Hanlin Stadium.

“In the boys game they came out fired up,” coach Smarr said of the ‘Jackets, who lost 5-1 at home to the Eagles back on Sept. 20. “We got an early goal, but they were still punching.

“In a 10-minute span there we put three goals in and that kind of sealed it for us so the second half we played a lot more defensively and possession.”

Braxton County, which improved to 19-0 and doesn’t return to action until the postseason on Wednesday, Oct. 22, got the only tally it needed just four ticks into the fourth minute.

Braxton County's Zack McQuain settles the ball in front of Williamstown's Colten Rinard during the Eagles' 6-0 Little Kanawha Conference championship match victory Saturday at Bill Hanlin Stadium in St. Marys. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Peyton Sharp took advantage of an 18-yard free kick following a foul on ‘Jacket keeper Landon Miller and the senior buried the shot in the upper right 90 for his 32nd goal of the campaign.

WHS head coach Kevin Mercer’s squad, now 13-3 with a match Thursday at Trinity, kept things at 1-0 until the 27th minute when Austin Smarr headed home a deep throw-in from Zack McQuain for his 15th goal to beat keeper Jackson Melonas, who had six saves.

The explosive Eagles showed their prowess after that by finding the back of the net in the 35th, 36th and 38th minutes. McQuain upped his goal total to 51 after finishing from a Joal Ransbottom assist. Josh Anderson then scored his first goal of the season on what turned out to be McQuain’s 21st assist while Sharp capped the first-half scoring on an unassisted finish after he beat a trio of ‘Jacket defenders in the box.

“When we first started the season we were pretty unsure about our team,” admitted coach Mercer. “We were still having the back and forth whether we were going to be co-ed, or all boys, or girls. We were able to get enough young freshmen to come out so we had an all boys team. The girls were able to get enough and you saw tonight we were able to put two really good teams out here. The girls were really competitive all year. We’ve been competitive all year. Our goal is always an LKC championship, but with having a very young team we were trying to figure out all the pieces all along.

“We’re peaking at the right time. When you are playing a great team like that, a top five team in the state, you can’t make any mistakes. We made a couple mistakes early and then we recovered and settled ourselves in the second half and played. All the credit goes to Braxton. They are the best team in the LKC for sure this year and we were competitive. I was proud of our kids the way they competed against a really talented team like that.”

Williamstown's Mason Mercer sends the ball down the field against Braxton County during the Eagles' 6-0 Little Kanawha Conference championship match victory Saturday at Bill Hanlin Stadium in St. Marys. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

McQuain put the finishing touches on the LKC repeat when he scored in the 61st minute via an Owen Lowther assist.

WHS had three shots on goal. Xavier Graeber had one on frame in the 24th minute and Mason Mercer’s came in the 45th.

Mercer’s shot in the 11th minute led to a corner kick by Graeber, but Eli McCallister was there to head it out of the box. Williamstown had a 37-yard free kick from Sivard in the 17th, but it too was headed out of danger thanks to James Johnson. Two minutes after that it looked like the ‘Jackets might score, but Sivard’s pass to Graeber in front of the net was scooped up by Hines in the nick of time

“We had a game scheduled early on, but a team dropped us. We just haven’t been able to find anybody to play,” coach Smarr said of what appears to be a long layoff before sectionals. “We’ll just spend a week getting healthy.

“We got a couple guys with some nagging injuries and we’ll spend a lot of time working on touches and keeping them ready for, I believe we’ll play Westside in the first round up at home, and then we’ll see who we got from there.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com