Notre Dame’s Francesca Steele boots a penalty kick toward the Liberty goal, as Cody McIntyre, Landon Davis, Felix Torres and keeper Austin Hayes defend.
Notre Dame’s Francesca Steele boots a penalty kick toward the Liberty goal, as Cody McIntyre, Landon Davis, Felix Torres and keeper Austin Hayes defend.
CLARKSBURG — Chance Howell scored a pair of early goals to lead Liberty to a 3-0 victory over Notre Dame in prep soccer action Thursday night at Liberty High School.
The Mountaineers had several early opportunities, but missed high on two shots and Notre Dame keeper JR Keener made a pair of saves to keep the game scoreless.
That changed in the 8th minute when Howell, a freshman, dribbled through the Irish and got one-on-one with the defense. Howell finished the goal with his left foot to put Liberty ahead, 1-0.
A little more than one minute later, Howell struck again. This time Jordan Hall set up Howell with a beautiful pass through the defense. Howell took a quick dribble off the pass and finished in the left corner for a 2-0 Mountaineer lead.
“(Howell) is good with the ball and has good speed,” said first-year Liberty coach Alex Hoskinson, who earned his first-ever coaching win. “He is one of those guys that just has that natural finishing ability.”
Hall continued to impress with his passing, but his teammates were unable to cash in on the looks. Chris Atkins and Hall each missed high on a pair of shots. Howell missed a wide-open look off a perfect cross from Hall in the 19th minutes and then sent one off the right post in the 26th minute.
“We got a little complacient at times,” Hoskinson said.” We possessed well early but then we didn’t keep the pressure on them.”
While Liberty possessed the ball for the majority of the game, the Mountaineers spent a large chunk of that time chasing down passes that Notre Dame’s Ben McKeen had cleared.
McKeen disruputed countless Liberty attacks and was a force, even while sustaining a cut above his eye that forced him to miss major minutes in the second half.
“(McKeen) is doing a good job and he is putting in a lot of effort,” Notre Dame coach Ian McIra said. “We moved him even further forward in the second half. He is a better defensive player but he is providing us a threat going forward.”
Atkins added a long goal early in the second half to extend the Liberty lead to 3-0, and from there Hoskinson and the Mountaineers relied on thier defense and keeper Austin Hayes to ensure the win.
“Our defense has been strong so far this year,” Hoskinson said. “The only thing we gave up tonight was when they got it over top of us but we trust (Hayes) back them to make up for any mistakes.”
Hayes finished with five saves, while Keener had eight for the Irish.
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