By Pam London
Special to The Seattle Times
Playing in their final game in a Liberty uniform, the Patriots seniors got to be the story Saturday afternoon.
Jordan Hemmen opened the scoring and Liberty beat Ellensburg, 2-1, to claim the 2A third-place trophy.
Sophomore Makenna Carr got the game-winner in the 75th minute, dribbling by two players and goalkeeper Jocelyn Egan to score.
By Greg Farrar
Jordan Hemmen, Liberty High School senior midfielder, puts in the first goal of the match at the 13-minute mark as the Patriots battled Ellensburg Nov. 21 at Shoreline Stadium for third and fourth in the state 2A girls soccer championships. Liberty beat the Bulldogs 2-1.
“We started off the game with all the seniors playing together. It doesn’t always happen, but we got to play together one last time as a team,” Hemmen said.
Hemmen, the KingCo 2A/3A co-MVP and Virginia Tech commit, hit a one-bounce volley from 16 yards that looped into the top-left corner in the 13th minute.
The Patriots (15-4-2) placed third for the fourth time in school history. Ellensburg finished 18-3-1.
Semifinals: Liberty falls to eventual state champs
The streaks remained intact, though not without a fight.
Sarah Hulbert scored the game-winner in the 37th minute and Squalicum beat Liberty 2-0 in the 2A state semifinals Nov. 20 at Shoreline Stadium. The defending 2A state-champion Storm extended its winning streak to 30 games and has not lost in 46 matches, a run dating to 2013.
“Definitely a great opponent,” said Liberty coach Tami Nguyen of Squalicum. “All credit to them, though, I think they just played a great game and unfortunately we just came out on the other end of it.”
After an end-to-end opening to the game, Hulbert laced a shot from the top of the box into the upper left corner of Sydney Argosino’s goal off an assist from Kim Dorr.
“I think it was definitely (a momentum-turner),” Nguyen said. “We hadn’t really had a lot of chances on goal and I think just not really being able to build our attack was frustrating, and then to get that goal at that time was crucial.”
Kimberly Hazlett doubled the Storm’s lead in the 54th minute from 25 yards, assisted by Kendra Steele. The strike gives the Portland-bound senior 34 goals on the year.
Maddy Mak was everywhere for the Patriots, getting down for slide tackles defensively and moving forward into the midfield late in the game as Liberty chased a goal.
“(Maddy) was one player who I felt like didn’t come out with nerves, she just came and went for it right from the get-go, so I’m proud of her for that,” said Nguyen. “It’s hard to do in big games like this but she certainly did.”