Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

DES MOINES – It was a history-making season for the Liberty High soccer program.

It took a herculean effort from one of the state’s best goal scorers to stop the historic run for the Lightning in their state tournament debut.

Pella senior Abby Warner scored three goals, including two in the second half as fifth-ranked Pella rallied past Liberty High 4-2 in a Class 2A quarterfinal on Tuesday at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines.

“It’s a year full of history,” Liberty High senior Bella Tafolla said. “That’s how we’ll remember this year.”

It was a season filled with historic firsts for Liberty High.

The Lightning claimed their first conference title, set a single-season record for wins and reached the state tournament for the first time.

It took an all-time performance from Warner to end that magical season.

The Iowa recruit scored twice in a span of 11 minutes in the second half as Pella (14-4) erased a 2-1 halftime deficit and advanced to the 2A semifinals where it will face top-ranked North Polk (18-1) on Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

Liberty High saw the best season in its brief history end at 13-5.

“We’ve only been a school since 2017 so to seven years later be here is incredible,” junior Rilyn Breinholt said. “Everybody on this team has worked so hard, our coaches have put into perspective how far we’ve come and it’s so crazy to think about all we’ve accomplished and how far we’ve come.”

The teams traded penalty kicks in the opening 20 minutes with Warner giving Pella an early lead six minutes into the game.

Breinholt answered by converting on her own penalty kick following a Pella foul in the box.

Liberty High took the lead late in the first half when Tafolla slipped a pass to freshman Morgan Bennett who converted from the left side of the box with 1:42 remaining before halftime.

“I knew if I turned around there were going to be four girls right on my back,” Tafolla said. “I could see her making that run and I always try to get girls the ball there, that’s kind of my job, I slotted a ball in and Morgan succeeded in putting it away and I’m so grateful for her.”

Liberty High held onto the 2-1 lead until Warner came up big in the final 20 minutes.

The senior tied the score with a blast from outside the box with 17:24 remaining and then gave the Dutch the lead back when she headed in a corner kick with 6:30 to play.

The three goals by Warner gave her 39 for the season, fifth most in the state.

“It’s almost unsavable,” Liberty High coach Frank Fiordellisi said of the second-half goal by Warner. “It was well-defended. It was from no angle and it was upper 90. It’s one of those that was kind of lucky shot but good players make shots like that.”

Pella junior Briana Shannon added a goal on a breakaway with 28 seconds remaining to secure the win.

“We didn’t want to just come here to play, we came here to compete and we had them on the ropes for a while,” Fiordellisi said. “We knew we had to keep it tight, I couldn’t be any prouder we just ran out of legs.”

The loss didn’t detract from what was an incredible season for Liberty High which posted its second winning season with its school-record 13 wins.

“We’d be lying if we said we didn’t achieve the goals we set at the beginning of the season,” Fiordellisi said. “With all the firsts, the conference championship, making it to state wins in a year and the growth of the program was amazing.”

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