It seems appropriate for the Redskins to win the North Cup. Just not the Redskins Wichita North had hoped for.
The Liberal Redskins won 1-0, in a classic battle for the North Cup Championship against Wichita East that came down to the final kick.
Liberal struggled to maintain possession as East forced the ball in front of the Liberal goal time after time. Forced onto their toes for the latter part of the game, East pushed as hard as they could to bend the Liberal defense, but the Redskins refused to break.
The final kick passed right in front of Jose Alonso, the Goalie for Liberal, where several East Forwards kicked at the ball, trying desperately to punch in the tying score. Alonso took the fate of the team into his hands, diving on to the ball making the game winning save.
“Yeah, that was very scary.” Coach Lori Navarro said, as she breathed a sigh of relief, after the game’s time had expired.
The only goal of the game came in the middle of the first half. After the Aces kicked the ball out of play, and a rare corner kick was set up for Liberal. Jason Rios played the ball in over the top of the defense to the far side of the goal where Misael Gonzalez waited and punched the ball in with his noggin, giving the Redskins the only score they needed.
It wasn’t an easy road for the Redskins playing and beating Wichita Heights 4-1 in their first round match. Then, in the battle of the Redskins (Wichita North), a game that went into double overtime Liberal came out on top with a 1-0 win.
Coach Navarro knows how important momentum is moving forward into the post-season.
“It means a lot for us to be building up right now, to be winning games when it matters right now, getting us prepared and ready for the playoffs and it’s been great competition…that’s why I like the North Cup Tournament”
As Liberal moves closer to their goal of finishing strong in post-season play, there’s no doubt they have the momentum necessary to accomplish exactly what they set out to do. They made both their coach and themselves proud today and look forward to a contentious post-season as the fall sports season moves ever closer to its end.
