Englewood – A numerologist would have had a field day Saturday with Liberty and the number 7.
The Lancers were making their seventh consecutive trip to the Class 4A semifinals, and it was No. 7, Owen McCarthy, who scored the winning goal to propel Liberty back into the title game with a 2-0 victory over Golden at Pirate Stadium.
Liberty (15-2-2) will try and exact a bit of revenge Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. against Broomfield, the team that beat the Lancers 2-0 in last year’s final.
Golden (13-3-2) was on its heels from the get-go. The Lancers’ Thomas Hoang, Mitch Lobdell, Josh Crotser and David Trainer had great looks at the Demons’ goal, and it was Trainer’s low line-drive shot that forced Patrick Tinucci to make one of his two saves.
The Lancers finally scored in the 19th minute. After Tinucci thought he had cleared, a bouncing ball was volleyed back at him by McCarthy from 20 yards that Tinucci couldn’t even make a move on.
“I hit it with my left foot and just tried to chip it over the defense, and luckily it went in,” McCarthy said. “A chance is a chance, and you’ve got to take every chance to the best of your ability.”
Kyle Joern slipped through the Demon defense seven minutes later, and a pass from Trainer was right on the money. Joern scored with ease.
Despite the dominating performance, Lancers coach Mike Goyden was less than pleased with his team’s overall play Saturday.
“In that second half we missed too many opportunities and just seemed to sort of lay back,” he said. “We can’t play like that. We can’t let teams come at us, because we have to attack.”
Said Golden coach Chad Reid: “We fell flat in the first half and we knew we could come out and play a lot harder, and in the second half that represented what we could do. We made them work.”
Golden 0 0 – 0
Liberty 2 0 – 2
Goals – McCarthy (unassisted), 19th minute; Joern (Trainer), 26th.
Shots on goal – Golden 1-2 – 3; Liberty 4-2 – 4. Saves – Golden (Tinucci) 1-1 – 2; Liberty (Martinez) 1-2 – 3. Corner kicks – Golden 0-4 – 4; Liberty 2-1 – 3. Offsides – Golden 0-1 – 1; Liberty 0-1 – 1. Fouls – Golden 6-1 – 7; Liberty 8-4 – 12. Yellow cards – Hughes, G, 45th minute.
BROOMFIELD 2, CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN 0
The goals did not flow as freely for Broomfield in the Class 4A semifinals as they had been during the first rounds of the playoffs. But what the Eagles lacked in quantity, they made up with quality.
Ryan Garren scored the initial goal on a beautiful crossing pass from Nathan Kafer, and Kyle Reddy nailed the clinching score off another nice assist from Mike Park as the defending 4A state champions knocked out Cheyenne Mountain 2-0 at Pirates Stadium.
“Nathan Kafer played a great ball across, and I knew it was coming to me because he is such a great player,” Garren said.
Kafer’s cross rolled from the far right sideline through a patch of Cheyenne Mountain defenders. Garren waited on the ball and sent his one-timer to the right post while Indians goalkeeper Hunter Huffman dove the opposite direction.
Broomfield (18-0-1) scored 25 goals and allowed just five shots on its own goal in the three postseason games before the semifinals.
The Eagles will face Liberty, the 2004 state champs, in the state title game for the second year in a row.
Cheyenne Mountain (17-2-0) was unfazed by the high-scoring Eagles in the early going, applying pressure in the first 15 minutes of play.
Ben Glass delivered a hard rolling shot to the right post in the 12th minute, but Broomfield goalie Ben Sabados swallowed up the attempt.
“It was definitely a good test for us. It’s a semifinal game. It’s not going to be easy like the 10-0 scores like we’ve had,” Reddy said.
Cheyenne Mountain 0 0 – 0
Broomfield 1 1 – 2
Goals – Garren (Kafer), 21st minute; Reddy (Park), 66th.
Shots on goal – Cheyenne Mountain 1-0 – 1; Broomfield 2-4 – 6. Saves – Cheyenne Mountain (Sabados) 1-3 – 4; Broomfield (Huffman) 1-0 – 1. Corner kicks – Cheyenne Mountain 0-0 – 0; Broomfield 0-2 – 2. Fouls – Cheyenne Mountain 11-6 – 17; Broomfield 10-11 – 21. Offsides – Cheyenne Mountain 2-0 – 2; Broomfield 0-0 – 0. Yellow cards – Massa, CM, 4th minute; Chapleski, B, 24th; O’Dea, CM, 25th; Aweida, B, 48th; Glass, CM, 73rd.
Brady Delander contributed to this story.
