Douglas Miles

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – Two years ago, Liberty High used an offensive blitzkrieg to win a boys’ soccer state championship.

This season, the Lightning are leading with a youthful defense.

“They’re young, but most of those guys played last year,” Liberty High coach Matt Harding said after the second-ranked Lightning edged No. 8 Cedar Rapids Washington, 3-2, in a Class 3A state semifinal Thursday at Mediacom Stadium. “This year, it’s just a little better.”

Liberty High (13-5-2) piled up 11 goals in three games en route to the 2023 3A state title. 4

This time around, the Lightning survived a quarterfinal in which penalty kicks were needed to break a scoreless tie against Des Moines Hoover and aside from a Washington goal off a free kick and a second score in the final seconds of the semifinal match, the Liberty defense – led by junior Collin Weis with help from sophomores Sam Lieu and Andrew Strathman, plus freshman Atticus Weis in front of stalwart senior Conley Sundblad in goal – nearly pitched a second state shutout in a row.

“It’s just a great sense of camaraderie,” Collin Weis said. “We’ve got a really young back line. Two sophomores back there, a freshman. They are just really willing to listen and work on what we need to fix. Immediately, they go out and work on it. It’s just a lot of good effort out there.”

First-half goals by seniors Mason Pentecost (12’) and Japhet Bongo (26’) staked Liberty to a 2-0 lead it never relinquished.

The goals were the third this season for Pentecost and team-high ninth for Bongo.

“I just wanted to score to help the team,” Bongo said. “I didn’t want to lose this game.”

Cedar Rapids Washington (8-6-4) scored with a Jacob Klein free kick to cut into the Liberty High lead at 2-1 right before halftime.

With 7:17 left in the match, Liberty senior Roman Riggs seemingly dribbled through half of the Warriors’ defense to tack on a vital insurance goal, which matched Bongo’s nine overall this season.

“It’s just a pleasure to watch him play,” Harding said of Riggs, a team captain two years ago who missed last season due to injury.

Riggs’ tally proved important after Klein scored for the second time in the closing seconds of the match. Liberty will try to win its second state title in three years against No. 4 Urbandale (13-4) Friday at 5 at Mediacom Stadium.

“It would be so awesome,” Collin Weis said. “Especially to be involved with this one. It’s obviously something we shoot for every year, but it’s special to be a part of.”

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