Soccer

Red resurgence

Liberty girls roar back from two-goal deficit to defeat Tri-Valley in OT

By RICHARD A. ROSS

GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — “What’s past is prologue,” wrote Shakespeare in “The Tempest.” The famous quote implies that what came before sets the stage for what is to come, and it adorns a statute in front of the National Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

The past was indeed a prologue to the present as the Tri-Valley and Liberty girls got set to play soccer on the Bears’ pitch on October 1.

The day before, Tri-Valley lost a disheartening league match in Tuxedo on a call that had Bears coach Mary Feusner fuming. The play involved junior stopper/sweeper Amanda Martin, who was hit in the face with a ball that then rolled down off her hands. An official ruled that Martin had intentionally stopped a goal using her hands and issued her a red card.

Martin’s removal from the game and her one-game suspension cost the Bears that game and seriously weakened them against Liberty. With only three players on her bench, including starting keeper Ellen Williams, who has been out since a freak slip on an afternoon of canoeing, Feusner would miss Martin’s tough defense and her ability to make her patented attacking runs that are part of Tri-Valley’s effective strike ability. Feusner brought up junior-varsity players Marina DeMilia and Rachel Adriaans to join the varsity corps.

Liberty was looking to make its recent stunning 7-6 victory over archrival Sullivan West and win over Fallsburg, a prologue to a third-straight victory, this against a team that contained numerous friends and teammates from Liberty United.

Hugs and smiles prevailed as the club teammates embraced, but Sundays’ United front was supplanted by an all out war as the girls divided to face each other in their first of two non-league tilts this fall.

Both teams have great strike ability up front. For Liberty, that includes seniors Rebecca Scherer and Jasmine Walizadeh and sophomore Paulina Kleinberger. Tri-Valley would counter on this day most notably with Agnes Pompeii and Jakki Pugh.

But it was in the midfield that Tri-Valley showed its edge. Liberty’s midfield is young and Tri-Valley exploited its advantage in the first period as it kept the pressure on Liberty with an unrelenting attack. Liberty keeper Taylir Lorino was undaunted and slid out to take the angle on attacking strikers. Lorino stopped five shots, including a couple of saves that were highlight material.

Tri-Valley got its first goal from Agnes Pompeii at 16:21 as she beat Lorino in the right corner of the net.

Pompeii and Pugh kept up the heat, while Liberty’s advance was hurt by shots taken too far out. Liberty did have its chances prior to Pompeii’s goal. One came when defender Ceara Williams helped keep a ball in on a corner kick following a Scherer miss.

Walizadeh’s cross to Kleinberger went wide. Emma Tingley sent a beautiful ball to Pompeii, who just missed one with her left-footed kick at about 12:35 in. Pugh dribbled around defenders, leading to another shot by Pompeii. Lorino made a stellar stop on that one.

Pugh made another sideline advance and got off a good shot at 19:50. “I like your attack,” shouted Feusner. “You’re getting those shots,” she encouraged. Pugh split two defenders but couldn’t strike gold in the first period.

Walizadeh hit the post before the teams retired with the Bears up 1-0. Pugh struck at 7:34 into the second period. Twenty minutes in, Feusner removed Katelyn Torres from the goal and replaced her with Williams.

“I wanted to give Ellen some time in net. She’s been our starting keeper and with a two-goal lead I felt that was a good time to get her in,” said Feusner after the game.

Liberty rallied as the bench shouted encouragement and Coach Ashlea Prouty got a great play from Ali Wallgren.

At 26:29, Scherer zig-zagged through the defense and beat a diving Williams to make it 2-1.

One minute later, Walizadeh tied it with a laser over Williams’ head. With eight minutes to go, Pompeii had to be helped off the field.

Karyn Sheeley’s stunning run up the full length of the field beat defenders as she fired one on goal. Skylar Musa did the same as the Bears sought to get one in before regulation expired. Feusner put Torres back in goal.

But neither team scored again and the game went into OT.

At 4:33 in the first OT period, Walizadeh sent one in front of the net and,the Bears inadvertently helped it in. The Lady Indians led 3-2, the exact score they beat Tri-Valley by last year on a late goal.

The Lady Indians basically kept the ball in the Bears’ end until the final whistle.

“We wanted to do something today for A-Mart,” said Feusner, referring to Martin. “We just didn’t have the energy off the bench.”

“We have a bench full of amazing subs. We’re 3-0 in our last three games and we’re on a roll now,” said Prouty. Selina Vargas provided assists on the two second-period goals.

Torres and Williams accounted for five saves for Tri-Valley.

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