Eighth-ranked Liberty High Extends Win Streak With Road Victory At Solon
Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports
SOLON – The schedule provided the potential for a sleepy effort from eighth-ranked Liberty High on Saturday.
Playing a third game in five days, with a rare Saturday morning kick off against a non-conference opponent provided plenty of reasons for the Lightning to be a big groggy.
Instead Liberty High was wide awake from the outset in an impressive 5-0 win over Solon on Saturday morning at sunny Spartan Stadium.
“They are a solid team and we knew we had to be ready right away,” Liberty High sophomore Callie Stanley said. “We got going early and that was a good feeling.”
Junior Rilyn Breinholt scored twice in the opening 20 minutes and Liberty High led 3-0 at the half while improving to 7-2 on the season.
The win was the third straight for Liberty High and capped a 3-0 week in which the Lightning outscored opponents 8-0.
The first three-game winning streak of the season for Liberty High comes after the Lightning allowed four goals in the second half of a 4-0 loss to 3A ninth-ranked City High last Friday.
“We went back and watched that game multiple times, we’ve continuously gone over it,” Breinholt said. “We’ve had a huge emphasis in practice this week on what we needed to correct and I think we’ve done a great job of making those adjustments.”
Stanley scored twice Saturday and had an assist and senior Bella Tafolla added a goal and an assist as Liberty High scored three or more goals in a match for the fourth time this season.
“It was kind of a humbling moment but I think we needed it,” Stanley said of the second half against City High. “It was good motivation and showed us what we needed to work on.”
Breinholt got Liberty High on the board early on Saturday when she scored her team leading eighth goal of the season off a Morgan Bennett assist just two minutes into the match.
“Coach told us on the bus on the way here, ‘you guys need to score in the first five minutes’,” Breinholt said. “That’s what we did and that was really big for us.”
Breinholt made it 2-0 with a goal off a Shay Sundblad feed in the 19th minute.
“The last couple of games we have really focused,” Liberty High coach Frank Fiordellisi said. “Today right from the state we came out hungry.”
Stanley scored in the 26th minute off an Eno Ituk assist to give the Lightning a 3-0 halftime cushion.
Tafolla scored off a Stanley feed 15 minutes into the second half and Stanley capped the scoring with her second goal of the match in the 76th minute off a Tafolla assist.
“I think we’ve improved everywhere,” Breinholt said. “We’ve had two girls come in as center backs and have helped us control the game and our new goalie (Ava Tague) has been amazing. We’ve improved on offense and it’s not the same girls scoring all the time we’ve really diversified it.”
Solon dropped to 5-5 and had a three-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
Saturday was the second straight win over Liberty High over Solon and just the second time in five meetings between the two programs that wasn’t decided by a single goal.
“They are always an organized, competitive team and these games are usually really close,” Fiordellisi said. “It’s a good win for us at an important time.”
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