By Don Nelson
The Liberty Bell High School girls’ soccer team came back from a heartbreaking loss to undefeated Brewster to win matches against Tonasket and Lake Roosevelt last week.
The Lady Lions’ home game against league-leading Brewster on Oct. 3 was decided on a late goal that gave the visitors a 2-1 victory.
Liberty Bell had tied the game at 1-1 with about six minutes left in the second half when the Lady Lions’ Sally Thornton-White blasted a penalty kick past the Brewster goalkeeper.
But with just under four minutes left in regular time, Brewster scored the deciding goal on a kick that just rolled past the reach of Liberty Bell goalkeeper Lauren Ochoa.
The Lady Lions traveled to Tonasket on Oct. 5, where they overcame a somewhat sluggish first half to come away with a 6-3 win.
“We had a tale of two halves against Tonasket,” Liberty Bell coach Lincoln Post said. “The first half was a back-and-forth game with missed opportunities from us and some good pressure from Tonasket.” The teams were even at 2-2 after the first 40 minutes.
“We started the second half with a series of passes that resulted in a quick goal and that changed the whole tenor of the game,” Post said. “Although Tonasket was able to score on a well-placed free kick, we were able to dominate the rest of the game and scored four goals in the second half.”
Thornton-White, Haley Post and Josephine Cole each scored two goals for the Lady Lions. Cole, a freshman, also assisted on a couple of goals and had what Post called “a standout game … It was great to see the potential that I had been observing in practice come together in the game.”
Back on the road at Lake Roosevelt on Saturday (Oct. 7), Liberty Bell shut out the Raiders, 3-0. Scoring for the Lady Lions were Anna Post, Haley Post and Julia Dietz.
“We controlled most of the possession but had a tough time scoring,” Post said. He credited some of that to Lake Roosevelt’s defense.
Dietz, another freshman, “had a beautiful goal and a really solid performance. As a coach its great to see the younger players start to make strong contributions to the team,” Post said.
Liberty Bell hosted Bridgeport on Tuesday (Oct. 10), travels to Manson on Thursday (Oct. 12) and returns home to face Oroville next Tuesday (Oct. 17). The Lady Lions are 4-1 in league play and 6-2 overall. They will have a rematch at Brewster on Oct. 19.
