Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Rilyn Breinholt had never put much thought into what she would feel at her senior night celebration.

In fact, senior night sort of snuck up on Breinholt who has been a stalwart in the Liberty High attack since joining the program as a freshman.

“I don’t think I’ve ever really imagined senior night it kind of just hit me like a train wreck this morning thinking about it,” Breinholt said. “This is senior night, this is the night, you don’t really think about it and all of a sudden you wake up and its four years later and you are almost graduating.”

If Breinholt would have imagined a perfect senior night four years ago it likely would have looked something like Friday’s win over Dubuque Senior.

Breinholt scored three second-half goals as Class 3A sixth-ranked Liberty High snapped a scoreless tie at the half on its way to a 3-1 win over Dubuque Senior on senior night at Liberty Stadium.

“It’s definitely special,” Breinholt said. “It’s the way you want to remember it, a good team win, working hard and getting the win that’s important but also just the energy. I feel like our second half was really good, we connected well and that’s important. Positive vibes.”

While Liberty High (9-0-1) has more games remaining, including two more at home, Friday offered a fitting celebration for one of the program’s most decorated seniors in Breinholt.
The senior night hat trick gave Breinholt a team-high 18 goals this season and pushed her career goal total to 59.

“Rilyn has been around longer than just the four years, she used to come when she was in middle school to some of the open gyms so we’ve known Rilyn for a long time,” Liberty High coach Frank Fiordellisi. “It was great to have our seniors end with their senior night with such a big win for us.”

Liberty High needed the late magic from Breinholt to fend off a stern effort from Dubuque Senior (4-5-1) on Friday and remain unbeaten on the season.

The match was tied at half before Liberty High, led by Breinholt, ratcheted up the offensive pressure in the second half.

“We didn’t try to change anything at halftime we just said you have to play simple,” Fiordellisi said. “You could tell there were nerves, we were kicking the ball to the other team, bad touches, bad decisions.

Breinholt scored all three of her goals in the final 17:01, including the match-clincher with 2:47 remaining.

“I think we were just rushing,” Breinholt said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, it was senior night and everything was getting to our head. We needed to calm down and just play our game and connect and that’s what we did in the second half.”

Breinholt snapped a scoreless tie when she took a pass from junior Callie Stanley and made a run before beating the Dubuque senior keeper for her first goal with 17:01 remaining.

She added a second goal less than four minutes later to push the margin to 2-0.

“I had gotten an opportunity similar to that earlier so I talked to my coaches and they were telling me what I needed to do on that play,” Breinholt said. “I think I realized that and realized I could take the girl on and that’s what I had to do.”

Dubuque Senior cut the lead to 2-1 when Ariya Smith knocked in a loose ball in front of the net with 7:11 to play but Liberty High responded.

Breinholt put the game out of reach with her third goal with 2:47 remaining.

“Credit to Senior they made it tough for us but we weren’t working for each other so we knew we had to possess, build go forward,” Fiordellisi said. “We started doing more of that and created scoring chances in the second half.”

Four of the final six matches for Liberty High are against ranked opponents, a stretch that starts next Tuesday at 3A fifth-ranked Linn-Mar.

“We have some good leaders, we’ve got some very talented players that have been around for three or four years and they’ve stepped up to every challenge,” Fiordellisi said. “I feel like in our bigger games so far we’ve stepped up and that’s what you want to see.”

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