LIBERTY –– The Eldred girls soccer team traveled to Liberty last Tuesday for Liberty’s “Pink Out” game for breast cancer awareness. It was a close game and momentum shifted back and forth throughout the whole match. Luckily for Liberty they were able to pull off a 2-1 win over Eldred on their home field. 

Liberty coach Roothland Medina said this when asked about their win, “It was a tough game, their stats were pretty comparable to us so I knew it would be a tough matchup. I’m thankful for the team effort at the end that’s certainly what led to our victory and today was our pink out game for breast cancer so it’s especially awesome to get the win today.”

Right out of the gate Eldred was putting the pressure on Liberty. The Yellowjackets were playing very aggressively and were trying hard not to let Liberty get possession. Eldred’s Sydney Furler had multiple close goal attempts early on but at the 20 minute mark Liberty flipped a switch and took the reins for the rest of the second half. With about 10 minutes left Liberty’s Angie Wheeler sunk a penalty kick to put the Redhawks up 1-0 going into halftime. 

Liberty seemed to take a page out of Eldred’s book and came out after halftime with very physical and dominant play. But the game wasn’t over yet with Eldred’s Avery Moscatiello getting a 1v1 opportunity with the goalie but not being able to convert it into points. However soon after the Yellowjackets’ Olivia Gonzalez had a perfectly placed free kick that sailed right under the crossbar of the goal. With 25 minutes left in the game there was now a tie. Eldred took the momentum after their goal and shot a few that Liberty’s goalie barely saved. It seemed like Liberty was losing the mental battle until Sydania Foster scored a clutch goal with only 2 minutes left in the game to put Liberty up 2-1. 

  That sealed the deal for Eldred as they couldn’t find the net again in the final minutes. It was an amazing end to a hard fought game on both sides. Eldred coach Kevin Moscatiello had this to say after the loss, “Disappointed with the loss and our first half effort, turned it around in the second half but it was too little too late, we keep getting great opportunities but we have trouble converting…hoping to finish some chances for the rest of the season.”