By Mike Maltais
The Liberty Bell High School varsity boys’ soccer team kept its undefeated streak alive this season and captured its first two league wins over defending league champion Manson, 7-2, and Oroville, 9-0, last week.
Sophomore Charlie Thornton-White was all but unstoppable against the Trojans on Saturday, as the veteran midfielder found the net four times to lead the team to its first-ever victory over Manson. It was a huge win for the Mountain Lions, who faced the Trojans three times last year and were shut out, 13-0 and 4-0, in the regular season and 5-0 in the district playoffs.
“The game went back and forth in the early minutes,” said coach Lincoln Post.
After Thornton-White headed in a score off a corner shot from Jorge Lara, Leif Portman-Bown and Lara got in on the action as well.
Just before the half Lara connected on a “beautiful goal from 40 yards out into the upper corner of the net,” Post said.
The Mountain Lions took a 4-0 advantage into the half, and that motivated the Trojans to try and get back into the game.
“Manson came out and made it 4-1 right away,” Post said of the second half.
But the Trojans were unable to break the momentum of Liberty Bell as Portman-Bown and Thornton-White added three more goals in the remaining period.
“The whole team played great,” Post said. “The chemistry among the players is really starting to come together.”
After losing seven seniors to graduation last year the Mountain Lions have a roster heavy with eighth graders through sophomores to support the team’s five juniors.
Oroville stalls
Thornton-White led off the scoring against Oroville early in the period and barely 10 minutes into the first half the Mountain Lions were up 8-0 on the Hornets.
With the Mountain Lions well in control of the game, the coach elected to shift his defenders into the forward position to put more emphasis on possession and passing and less on scoring.
The Mountain Lions concentrated on defense and ball control rather than running up the score through the remainder of game, adding a single goal in the second half for the 9-0 shutout.
Scoring against the Hornets was evenly divided among seven Mountain Lions including Thornton-White, Lara, Willy Duguay, Garrett Palm, Marty Larsen, Rowan Post, Bram Wathen and Wil Chandler.
Moses Lake C falls
Juniors Lara and Marty Larsen each scored a hat trick at Moses Lake to shut out the Chiefs’ C squad, 6-0, on Saturday.
As in the earlier game against Oroville “the game was decided in the first quarter and we could have run up the score,” Post said. “I subbed a lot of eighth and ninth graders in another situation where we tried to work on possession and passing rather than scoring.”
Post said he would like to fit a game against the Moses Lake junior varsity into the schedule this season if possible.
Following spring break the Mountain Lions will host Bridgeport at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday (April 8). The Mustangs were responsible for knocking Liberty Bell out of the district playoffs last season.
“Bridgeport is always a tough opponent,” Post said.
