LIBERTY– The Liberty RedHawks faced off against Pine Bush last week in a boys’ soccer match in Liberty. Pine Bush was able to wrestle a 3-1 victory from the Warriors on their home field. Coach Debbie Simpson had this to say after the loss, “It was a well-played game by both teams and we look forward to continuing to play strong and communicate well as a team. I’m proud of how we played and the shots we took, now we just need to make our shots.”

Pine Bush seemed like the more dominant team right from the start with ball control and pressure. They almost picked up an early goal when Liberty’s goalie came far forward for a save but luckily another Liberty defender rushed in for the save. When asked about her goalie’s play style Coach Simpson commented, “Our goalie definitely does play a little aggressively as his style but it tends to pay off for him and he gets crucial stops, in the rare cases it doesn’t work we make sure to have his other teammates around to help.” 

After this big stop Liberty started taking ball possession for a significant amount of time. They had multiple chances to score but unfortunately couldn’t find the goal. Pine Bush on the other hand picked up the first goal halfway through the first half with a powerful kick from the outside angle. 

Both teams seemed to establish a pattern throughout the first half. With Liberty taking ball possession for a majority of the time and finding multiple openings that they can’t convert on and Pine Bush getting short bursts down the field with highly accurate shooting. The warriors weren’t giving up the ball often but when they did Pine Bush certainly found their target.

This pattern continued into the second half with Pine Bush able to find another shot to put them up 2-0. With 25 minutes left on the clock Liberty’s #7 split multiple defenders for a 1v1 with Pine Bush’s goalie and snuck a quick shot into the corner of the goal to bring the score to 2-1. Unfortunately for Liberty, Pine Bush immediately answered with a deep midfield goal of their own and sealed Liberty’s fate. 

However, the RedHawks didn’t go down without a fight and proceeded to play hard until the end. They were able to get into scoring range multiple times but couldn’t seem to sneak anything past Pine Bush’s goalie. The game ended with a 3-1 win for Pine Bush.