Scoring touch evades Liberty

   The Pueblo West Cyclones never trailed as they defeated No. 13 Liberty 2-1 for their program's first 4A girls soccer playoff win.

    The No. 20-seeded Cyclones struck about 8 minutes into the game to take a 1-0 lead. Gianna Cassio scored off a free kick from just outside the Liberty box to give Pueblo West an early lead and some momentum.

    "Once we scored that goal I told the girls not to be conservative and that we needed to put more goals in the net," Cyclones coach Rex Harriman said. "We were winning free balls and getting chances."

    In the first half, Liberty used its speed to get some scoring chances in open space but couldn't convert and just missed on some close shots that either went just wide or were stopped by Cyclones goalkeeper Amanda Noor.

    "We came out nervous and couldn't find the net," Liberty coach Mike Goyden said. "We had a lot of 1-on-1 breakaways, but we struggled in finishing the plays to get goals."

    The Lancers outshot the Cyclones 9-4 in the first half but were down 1-0 at the break.

    Liberty (6-8-1) came out charging in the second half, tying the game in the first 5 minutes. Alex Dohm got a nice crossing pass from Jen Milbank and buried it in the back of the net just above Noor's grasp.

    "We played much better in the sec- ond half," Goyden said. "We had a nice goal to get the game tied up."

    Pueblo West (11-3-1) didn't wait long to regain the lead as it capitalized 8 minutes later for a 2-1 lead. Kira Salinas scored off a rebound after a hard shot by Emily Pulsifer, which the goalkeeper was unable to control and resulted in an easy putback for Salinas. 

    "After they scored, we just wanted to keep our heads up," Pulsifer said. "We just played our game and were able to get the winning goal off of a hustle play."

    After the Cyclones retook the lead, the Lancers turned up the pressure and pushed hard in the offensive end.

    "They came at us very hard, but we were conditioned very well and didn't get tired," Harriman said. "We ran a double stopper to slow down the two major pushes they made."

    Liberty had several chances in the last 10 minutes to get the tying goal.

    "We had a lot of one goal losses this season, but we have to give Pueblo West credit," Goyden said. "They came at us with a direct attack, and they played a good game."