FALLSBURG – Monday’s boys’ soccer matchup between the Liberty Redhawks and the Fallsburg Comets was a tightly contested game, that saw the visiting Redhawks come away with a win, 2 – 0.

The entire first half was a defensive battle finding both teams jockeying for possession of the ball competing to get any quality shots on net.

 A few shots came close, including one from Fallsburg that rang off the crossbar, and Liberty had an excellent opportunity following a scrum in front of the net, were they got off a shot at close range. But the Comets goalkeeper, Oscar Carranza Bonilla, made a tremendous effort, pushing the ball up into the air and out of the net. 

Later on in the game Carranza Bonilla would make another spectacular save deflecting the ball out of the net.

After the start of the second half Liberty’s Kevin Garcia Martinez kicked a beautiful shot that looked like it was going to bend into the net but rang off the crossbar. 

The Redhawks finally broke the 0-0 tie at around the 74-minute mark. During another chaotic scrum in front of the Fallsburg net, Dylan Romero of the Redhawks was able to get the ball off of a block and send it home before Fallsburg’s goalie could reposition himself. The Redhawks scored another insurance goal on a questionable direct kick by Brayan Hernandez.

Fallsburg head coach Pete Dworetsky thought, “We did a lot of good things, but no one likes to lose, we were out of position when they got the first goal, and whatever that was that happened for the direct kick, but regardless, we didn’t get enough shots on goal. We need to do more from the outside; we’re spending too much time in the middle making too many touches. But we still have a bunch of games left so we’ll keep working at it.”

Liberty coach Rich Feeney observed, “We were playing good ball the whole game, just had a hard time finding the net. It was a relief to get that first goal, but we knew they weren’t going to give up. We got a little lucky on the direct kick, but Brayan made a fantastic goal, and we stayed composed and brought the game home.”