Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High is hoping its match with Western Dubuque on Tuesday evening ends up being an encapsulation of the entire season.

It took Liberty High some time to get rolling on Tuesday but once it did the goals came in bunches.

Liberty High scored all nine goals in the final 52 minutes in a 9-0 shutout of Western Dubuque (2-10-1) in a Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division contest in North Liberty.

“Once you see the first one hit the back of the net it feels like it’s possible after that,” Liberty High senior captain Collin Weis said. “It’s really just a boost of inspiration and it makes it all easier.”

Liberty High (4-5-4) needed more than 28 minutes to score on Tuesday.

Once the Lightning found the net it scored three times in the final 11:34 of the opening half and never relented.

To date that’s been the season for the Lightning.

Liberty High scored 17 goals while posting a pair of wins in its first 11 matches of the season.

The Lightning matched their season goal total and season win total in its last two times out in back-to-back shutout wins posting an 8-0 win over Central DeWitt on Saturday before its 9-0 win on Tuesday.

“The story is the same from the standpoint of just growing and progressing through the season and my respect to our captains for keeping everything really positive,” Liberty High coach Matt Harding said. “The vibe with our team has been really positive all season in spite of not being able to get the game across the line which can be really frustrating but it’s starting to click.”

The Lightning had opportunity after opportunity in the opening 25 minutes on Tuesday but couldn’t get on the board.

Jack Tvedte finally broke the ice when he scored off a nifty cross from Gavin Mceleney with 11:34 in the opening half.

That goal opened the floodgates for Liberty High.

Weis scored a little more than a minute later off a feed from Tvedte and gave the Lightning a 3-0 halftime lead with a goal off a penalty kick with 4:58 remaining in the first half.

“This has been the story of the program for the last couple of years we kind of start slow which no one wants to start slow but we are finding our groove,” Weis said. “I think we are looking good going into the postseason.”

Ben Johnson scored less than seven minutes into the second half and Tvedte added another goal with 28:33 remaining to push the lead to 5-0.

Johnson added a second goal a little more than three minutes later as the Lightning offensive onslaught continued.

“That’s where the last two games have been a positive in being able to get a lot of the younger guys minutes but then getting a variety of guys on the score sheet,” Harding said. “We are certainly finding what doesn’t work and then hopefully we are seeing enough examples of what does work that we can carry that forward into the tough games we have coming up.”

Joao Victor Lira capped scoring with goal with 54 seconds remaining.

It was the second consecutive shutout for the Lightning which went 11 consecutive games to open the season without a clean sheet.

“This is our second shutout in a row, which is our only shutouts we’ve had this season, we’ve put together some good performances against some good teams and stayed in games and that’s been kind of key,” Harding said. “We’ve had some rough losses but we got some things figured out and we’ve been competitive in every game we’ve played since then.”

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