By Lori Brown
LIBERTY — October 8, 2010 — The Liberty Indians prevailed over the visiting James I. O’Neill Raiders, 3-2, on Tuesday afternoon in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV soccer match.
With the win, Liberty improved its record to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in Div. IV. O’Neill dropped to 3-5-1 overall and 1-3 in Div. IV.
Liberty played great even though the wet field conditions made playing the game tricky.
O’Neill took an early 1-0 lead as Dylan Ramsay scored a goal just 10:45 into the game.
Neither team scored during the remainder of the first half, but both teams put pressure on the goalkeepers during the second half. The rain started back up, but that didn’t stop both teams from scoring during those 40 minutes of play following halftime.
Five minutes into the second half, the Indians tied the game at 1-1 when Pedro Garcia put the ball past Raiders’ goalie Thomas Nagel.
About midway through the half, O’Neill’s Frank Lilos recorded the go-ahead goal with an assist from A.J. Pohl.
But a few minutes later, Liberty’s Sergio Diaz evened the score at 2-2 by scoring a goal. Conor Siegel assisted Diaz on the score.
With approximately seven minutes remaining in the game, Siegel scored the go-ahead goal to give the Indians the lead for the first time in the contest.
Liberty then played tough defense to clinch its one-goal win.
“It was a well played game, tightly contested,” O’Neill Coach Ken Hall said.
Nagel finished the match with 10 saves. Liberty’s goalie, Will McGuire had six saves.
“We always have a very close game with O’Neill,” Liberty Coach Debbie Simpson said. “Last year we split the games and they beat us in sectionals.
“They scored first [today] and we had to come back,” she continued. “We knew we had to beat them. Our defense did great in the second half and so did the offense. It was a complete team effort.”