Liberty soccer draws with Bellevue

When the 2024 girls soccer schedules came out, it was clear that Liberty High School was going to have one of the most difficult seasons in school history.

After being placed in the top division of KingCo with some of the best 4A teams in the state, and 3A teams that threaten to make runs in the state tournament on the schedule, the Patriots had to prepare for the best of them.

After losing 13 seniors from last year’s team, this Liberty side has fared pretty well through their gauntlet of a regular season. The Pats left the game with Bellevue wanting more, leaving without a goal, but also not allowing a goal, with a 0-0 draw on Oct. 17.

“We are definitely a little tense… Afterwards it is a little disappointing, but we need to bring that to the next game and bring the things we wanted to do in this game to our next game,” said senior Yasmin Peitl.

With just two games remaining, Liberty is sitting with a 8-2-2 record, and after a scoreless draw with Bellevue, the Patriots are the top 3A team with 17 points. That’s one more than Bellevue and two more than Inglemoor.

“It was a hard fought game. We’ll take a point against good teams,” said Manager Ryan Johnson.

Liberty opened up the game really strong. Skyla Yu and Malia Suehiro pestered the Bellevue defense, and Morgan Ackermann along with Addie Streur made runs in behind the Wolverine defense.

But no goals were scored, then Bellevue took the momentum for the final 20 minutes of the first half. There were never any crazy shots or much needed saves from Peyton Warns. But the Wolverines controlled the ball and the rhythm of the game in the first half.

“They did a really good job holding down their mid and forward line. They put a lot of pressure on us,” Peitl said.

That momentum carried into the second half with Warns making two massive saves — one on a looking shot and the other on a free kick from about 40 yards out. “She’s been doing a good job for us. She makes a key save when we need it. She had a couple tonight… When we need her to make the play she does it,” Johnson said.

During the final 15 minutes Liberty came inches away from a winner on multiple occasions. On corner kicks especially the delivery into the box was perfect, on three different occasions a Patriot player just got not get on the end of it.

Peitl asks herself how they Patriots come up empty sometimes. But in her eyes, goals will come with a bit more conviction: “One player needs to be more assertive than the others and say this is my ball. They need to go for it and get any type of body part on it.”

That is something Johnson will look at and the Patriots will look to improve on. But if the service can continue to be this accurate and lethal, Liberty can use them as weapons.

“We just have to re-examine it and see if there is something we can do a little bit better… That’ll be something that we look at the film and go back to work on Monday,” Johnson said.

In overtime, both sides threatened. Ackermann had the best overall shot attempt in the first period of overtime. She used her speed to knife between three defenders and it needed a great save from the Bellevue keeper to stay out of the net.

“In the first half they dominated us a little bit more than we wanted. In the second half we wanted to dominate and I think we did,” Peitl said.

Bellevue was stymied by Chelsea Irvine on the left side of the field, not just in overtime, but all night. She made clearance after clearance and played a physical style of soccer that needed to be played.

“She is a really fast and good player. Her speed really helped down the line,” Peitl said.

In the Patriots’ two biggest games this season, they left with a 0-0 score — this game and a scoreless draw against Mount Si. From a defensive perspective, “as defenses it is hard to hold off the whole game, especially when it is 0-0… I take great pride in it,” Peitl said.

From the offensive side, to keep trying and trying for a goal but being denied can be tiring.

“It takes guts…We know we are going to have to find a way to beat them… We are going to go back and try to get a little bit better,” Johnson said.

The two games left are no gimmies either — Issaquah and Woodinville present two totally different opponents. The Eagles are in a down year. But a team that always plays hard can present challenges. They are a well-coached side that just doesn’t have the wins this year.

“We have been trying to focus on one game at a time. Everything is focused on Issaquah. It is a rivalry game and we haven’t played them in a while…It is going to be a competitive game… We’ll be ready to go,” Johnson said.

As far as Woodinville goes, they are rolling through KingCo play. The Falcons are 9-1-2 with their one loss coming against Mount Si, a fairly recent Liberty opponent.

“We want this to be a good game. We are going to come out really strong,” Peitl said.