Pattys Prevail Over Braves 3-0, Win 3rd Straight District Championship

On Saturday night at Olentangy Orange Pioneer Stadium, the Olentangy Liberty Girls Soccer team appeared in their 4th consecutive District Championship, with a goal to deliver their 3rd straight District crown. Standing in the way again were the Olentangy Braves, squaring off for the 3rd consecutive year in a District Final or later.

Olentangy had dealt the Pattys a 3-0 defeat in the regular season, securing the inaugural OCC Buckeye Division Championship (as a result of the realignment that brought the Olentangy and Westerville schools together). The Patriots entered the match seeded #2 in the District at 14-3-1, with the Braves coming in at #9 at 13-2-3.

Liberty was determined to improve upon the poor showing in the earlier meeting, and the entire  team responded with a strong outing and a dominant 3-0 win  over the Braves. The theme for the night was “1st to the ball = 1st to regionals”, and the Pattys converted intent to action with a strong 68% possession statistic for the match.

Liberty opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when Madison Rapier netted her 6th goal of the year off a feed from Sarina Dirrig.  The opening tally would prove to be the game winner, but the Patriots would find the net again in the 57th minute (Abby Townsend on assist from Rapier) and 6 minutes later Rapier would net her second goal of the night and close out the scoring on an assist from Mara Follmer.

The Pattys defense stood strong once again, registering their 11th shutout and yielding very few scoring opportunities for the Braves. Emma Campbell had 4 saves in 65 minutes, and Grace Poncsak closed out the match with 1 save.

Liberty advances to the OHSAA State Tournament for the third year in a row, and will face #1 Gahanna in a Sweet 16 matchup on Tuesday, November 1st at Dublin Jerome High School.  Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00PM.

Drop everything on Tuesday and head to Jerome to support the Pattys!

GO PATTYS!