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Eagles edged by Battlefield, 1-0 in boys soccer; multiple LHS shots just miss
Shane Cooke may as well have been banging his head against a wall.
Every ball the Liberty senior tried to head into the goal Friday missed, sometimes by mere inches. Duke Mensah, on the other hand, only got one good opportunity to hit a header in the second half and that shot found the back of the net with only 55 seconds left in the game to give his Battlefield Bobcats a 1-0 victory over Liberty in Haymarket.
“He’s been doing that for us all season,” Battlefield coach Ott Pimsaen said. “He’s our key piece, especially on sets in the attacking third. He came through for us and that was huge.”
Mensah scored the game-winner, on a throw-in by Troy Allaire from just outside the box. Positioned near the goal, Mensah jumped and met ball at the peak of his leap. He headed it perfectly over the goalkeeper.
The Liberty Eagles (5-3-0 overall, 2-2-0 Cedar Run District) had many similar opportunities in the second half, but they couldn’t convert against Battlefield (8-0-2, 2-0-1).
“It should have never come down to the last minute. We should have scored when we had opportunities,” Liberty coach Greg McLeod said. “We could have won it.”
Liberty’s leading scorer with five goals this season, Cooke had the Eagles’ first close encounter came four minutes into the second half when he headed a throw-in just inches wide of the goal. One minute later, he intercepted a pass, took a quick dribble around a defender and bent a sharp shot towards the right post, but Battlefield keeper Alan Hinton made a diving save.
Ten minutes later, Cooke was left unmarked on a corner kick, but his header missed by a foot. Then, with 21 minutes remaining, a Matt Judd free kick set up another header by Cooke, but the ball missed a bit high. Cooke got another header opportunity with 10 minutes remaining, but again missed high.
Finally, with 8:40 remaining, Cooke launched a hard shot from 25 yards. Liberty fans erupted, believing the ball had finally penetrated the goal, but it had actually skimmed the top of the net and continued out of bounds.
“We just weren’t finishing. Everything was just a fraction off – a matter of inches. But soccer’s a game of inches,” Cooke said. “It was a little frustrating. That’s pretty much the game, right there, if I put in one of those...”
See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
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