For the second year in a row, the Liberators took on the Cassville Wildcats for the class 2, district 5 championship. This year the outcome was different with the Liberators winning 2-1! Bradley Stillwagon got Bolivar on the board first when he recieved a corner kick from Matt Magana in the 16th minute. Bradley vollied the ball off his chest to his feet for the shot which found the back of the net. That would be the only scoring of the half. In the second half, Cassville came out really raised the intensity level. Uziel Franco beat a Liberator defender in the 41st minute to fire a rocket shot past the keeper to even up the score. Bolivar did not let that goal get them down. They continued to play their game and focused on possesion. The Liberators really moved the ball well tonight and by far played the better game of soccer. Those efforts paid off in the 55th minute when defender Seth Hopwood made an overlap run into the midfield. Carlo Frasseto found Seth on the overlap and played a perfect ball to him. Seth beat the outside back, took the ball down to the corner and sent a beautiful cross into the box. Sophomore Matt Magana read the cross perfectly, settled the ball to his feet and fired the shot past a diving keeper. That goal would prove to be the game winner! Cassville would mount a couple of more attacks, but the Liberator defense would not be denied. Bolivar took back over control of the play and three more ideal scoring opportunities, but the shots would fall just wide. When the final whistle blew, what a celebration at midfield with the team and fans. Thanks to the awesome crowd that showed up to support the boys tonight. These guys worked really hard all season and a lot of people did not suspect we would be in this position. Great job fellas and next up is traditional power Pembroke Hill. The Liberators improve their record to 20-7.
Naturally, you will see the controversy will be that the official ended the game early (as indicated by comment #1). My view on this is that the official time is held on the field, not on the scoreboard, so don’t blame the Liberators. We do not have a man run the the clock, the coaches start and stop the clock. We are not always right there by it so it will not be 100% accurate with what is on the field.
